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Wet and Dry Years in a Decade 
of Massachusetts Public Records 



By 
CORA FRANCES STODDARD 

Secretary of the Scientific Temperance Federation 




AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING COMPANY 

WESTERVILLE. OHIO 






WET AND DRY YEARS IN A DECADE OF 
MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC RECORDS 

Pages 

The Background 5 

Drunkenness and Crime 8 

Prison Population 14 

Women and Children 13, 14, 16, 19 

Home Life 23, 48 

Health 26 

Insanity 35 

Economic Conditions 36 

Savings and Thrift 37 

Pauperism and Poverty 39 

The Opportunity for Constructive Work 49 



.... 

pec iz im 



THE author of this report presents it as an attempt to picture faithfully ten years ot 
social conditions into which intemperance enters, in so far as they are represented in 
public records and in the experience of those agencies which touch most intimately the 
lives of the common people of a state and its capital city. Realizing the limitations of statis- 
tics, the author suggests that conclusions should be drawn from the general trend of the 
facts presented rather than from any isolated set of statistics. 

This study was begun in the autumn of 1921, and a preliminary report of results read 
at the annual meeting of the National Temperance Council in Washington, D. C. in December. 
In the intervening months, the study has been extended to cover a ten-year period because 
it was soon discovered that comparison of the prohibition period with the immediately pre- 
ceding years, when war conditions restricted drinking and the liquor traffic, did not reveal 
the full extent of the change which had taken place from the days when the sale of liquor 
was proceeding normally. While this plan of using a decade involved consideration of 
other factors than sobriety, it is believed that these factors have been fairly recognized, 
and that before we should get too far from the pre-prohibition period, its records should 
be compiled for reference. In most cases the data are compiled numerically, and not re- 
latively to population. The latter method, it will at once be observed, would have given 
in most cases a still more favorable figure for recent years, as while the totals in the 
tables have been falling, the population of Boston and of Massachusetts has been slowly 
but steadily rising. 

Acknowledgements are due for assistance in compiling some of the tables to Mr. Robert 
H. Magwood, and to the many public officials who have courteously supplied data for 1921 
and 1922 not yet available in published reports. 

The forewords are written by Dr. Richard C. Cabot, Professor of Clinical Medicine, 
Harvard Medical School, and Professor of Social Ethics, Harvard University, and by 
Mr. Robert A. Woods of the' South End House, Boston, formerly member of the Boston 
Licensing Board and of the Board of Trustees of Norfolk State Hospital for Inebriates. 



FOREWORD 



THE outstanding conclusion from this report is, 1 think, that, to the poor, prohibition 
in Massachusetts has been a signal blessing. The rich may, for all we know, be as 
foolish as ever, but beyond any question the poor are better off. Drunkenness in 
women of the poorer classes has signally decreased ; children under seventeen are much 
better off. 

Evidently bad liquor does not kill so many as we have been led to suppose. From the 
health standpoint, the lessening of deaths from alcohol and from accidents goes hand in hand 
with the decrease of alcoholic insanity and chronic alcoholism. Doubtless the remarkable 
decrease of pneumonia and tuberculosis has some relation to Prohibition but evidently other 
factors are here at work. 

I believe this report represents the truth as nearly as statistics and the first-hand obser- 
vation of social workers can give it. I do not see how its conclusions can be impugned nor 
how anyone can help rejoicing in the improvement which it registers. 

Richard C. Cabot. 



FOREWORD 



MISS STODDARD'S years of fruitful experience in the study of the scientific aspects 
of the temperance question have equipped her in a peculiar degree for the much 
needed service of tracing the results of prohibition. The precise object of the present 
inquiry into public records is highly important because it provides the large perspective in 
which the whole matter must be viewed and measured. If it is clear beyond peradventure 
that the net total result of prohibition is largely and uniformly, or almost uniformly favor- 
able, there can be little question but that an increasing majority sentiment will support it on 
its merits. That sentiment will ensure that adequate enforcement legislation is provided and 
that the whole body of the prohibition law is increasingly well enforced. 

Miss Stoddard's presentment will serve effectively to adjourn the discussion of the subject 
from the region of casual impression and hearsay to that of the comprehensive and total facts. 
And it can leave no doubt in the open mind as to what the facts down to date are. 

Robert A. Woods. 



WET AND DRY MAPS OF MASSACHUSETTS 

JAN. I, 1912 




JAN. I, I9I9 



; 


■j^^k 


iflli 




111,11 





BLACK, TOWNS AND CITIES WITH LICENSED SALOONS 
WHITE, TOWNS AND CITIES WITHOUT SALOONS 



The National War-Prohibition Law went into effect July I, 
1919. The map for Jan. 1, 1919, therefore, represents approxi- 
mately the situation when the legal liquor traffic was abolished. 



WET AND DRY YEARS IN A DECADE OF 
MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC RECORDS 

CORA FRANCES STODDARD 

Executive Secretary of the Scientific Temperance Federation, Boston, Mass. 

THE illuminating report in September, 1921, on "Social Effects of Prohi- 
bition" in Boston and in Massachusetts by Miss Amy Woods, compiled at 
the request of the present writer, suggested a continuation study bringing 
the observations up to date. It has seemed desirable to add more evidence from 
the state of Massachusetts as a whole, because the population of Boston is approx- 
imately one-fifth that of the entire state. 

The former report covered the results of one year of prohibition. It -showed 
distinct gains in the experience of the social welfare agencies which come into 
intimate relationship with the part of the population most likely to be affected. 

The present study of public records is completed after two and one-half years 
of prohibition. It compares the last two years of this period with the pre-prohi- 
bition years of the decade, partly to put on permanent record significant but 
easily forgotten changes that have occurred. Such a comparison is necessary for 
adequate understanding of conditions found in the prohibition period. 
THE BACKGROUND 

The State of Massachusetts stands sixth as to population (3,852,356 by the 
U. S. Census of 1920), exceeded among the states in density of population (479.2 
per square mile) only by Rhode Island. All but 202,108 of its people (94.8 per 
cent. ) live in towns and cities of more than 2,500 population. They are chiefly 
engaged in commercial and industrial pursuits. Under local option many of the 
towns and cities had barred the legal sale of liquor. When prohibition came into 
effect. July 1, 1919, there were 19 cities and 91 towns which had saloons; in the 
remaining 19 cities and 225 towns the sale of liquor was barred out by popular vote. 

The Metropolitan District. Boston is the largest city in the six New Eng- 
land states. Here are centered many of the commercial interests of the entire 
section. To it come each year for business and pleasure thousands of visitors 
who look upon Boston as their natural city center. It is surrounded by small 
municipalities and towns whose population boundaries are often indistinguishable. 
Many are chiefly residential. Others are both residential and industrial. Metro- 
politan waterworks, parks, and postal district blend into a certain community of 



REPRINTED FROM THE SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE JOURNAL, JUNE, 192S 



6 WET AND DRY YEARS IN A DECADE 

interests this population which, including Boston proper, amounts to more than 
a million and a half. These municipalities and towns have been tenacious of self- 
government, preferring it to submitting their affairs to a "Greater Boston" eity 
government. Boston is thus the business and social center of a population which 
numerically equals her own, but which in matters of local government acts by 
independent units. 

Population of Boston. The population of the political unit of Boston is about 
three-quarters of a million, 1 nearly one-third of which in 1920 was foreign-born 
(31.9 per cent.) ; 31.8 per cent, more was native-born but with both parents 
foreign-born — altogether. nearly two-thirds of the population at the most but one 
generation removed from the ideas and customs of other lands. Of the nearly 
32 per cent, who were foreign-born. 57,011 were born in Ireland; 42,148 in Russia 
and Lithuania;- 38,179 in Italy; 40,265 in British America. The remainder come 
in much smaller numbers from twenty or more other countries. Forty-seven per 
cent. (47.2) of the total white population, twenty-one years of age and over, is 
foreign-born. 2 

Here, then, is- a large foreign-born population residing within the city, and a 
large non-residential population making Boston its business and social center but 
without direct political responsibility for its affairs. These two facts are a part 
of the background to be kept in mind in observing the operations of prohibition 
in Boston. 

A Former License City. Another feature is the fact that in pre-prohibition 
days Boston was a liquor center for all northeastern New England. It was liquor 
from Boston, only three hours distant by rail from Maine, that contributed very 
considerably to the difficulties of enforcing prohibition in Maine. From the port 
of Boston went hundreds of thousands of gallons of rum (over a million in one 
war year) to the natives of Africa. In 1918, the last completely license year, 
Boston had 15 breweries, 3 44 clubs with liquor licenses, 314 licensed places for 
the sale of liquor not to be drunk on the premises, 641 licensed for on-consump- 
tion, 4 a total of approximately 1,000 places where some or all forms of alcoholic 
beverages were sold. The majority of the towns and cities immediately contigu- 
ous had no legal liquor shops, having voted not to grant licenses for the same. 

Wet Sentiment Residuum. Boston annually cast a majority vote for the 
saloon and this majority came from the wealthy, exclusive, largely native-born, 
"Back Bay'' section as well from the down-town districts. There were many 
who sincerely believed that the licensing of saloons was the only feasible policy 
for a large city. From this point of view, Boston as a unit did not welcome 
prohibition, and it was to be expected that so radical a change in policy would 
require time to prove itself and to settle into the accepted routine of the city's 
life. One finds here the same signs of restiveness that appear in other cities — 



'Population U. S. Census (1910), 670,585; state census (1915), 745,439; U. S. Census 
(1920), 748,060. 

Statement issued to the press March 30, 1922, from U. S. Census Bureau. 

"Thirty-third Annual Report on Statistics of Manufacturers in Massachusetts for the 
year 1918. 

*Annual Report of the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for the 
year ending November 30, 1918. 



OF MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC RECORDS 7 

a class that resents prohibition, regarding it an infringement on personal liberty ; 
some who rejoice in the use of stocks laid in in pre-prohibition days ; some who 
consider it clever to evade or to violate the law and who do so as the fad of the 
moment; some who have turned to making "home brew"; some who see an 
opportunity to reap quick wealth by catering to appetite in violation of the law. i 

Illegal Traffic Not New. In 1921 there were signs of organization of an 
illegal liquor traffic. Massachusetts had enacted no state law for enforcing pro- 
hibition until just as this report goes to press.* Old state liquor laws are enforced 
by state officials as far as they apply to the present situation. But these did not 
prohibit the manufacture, importation or transportation of intoxicating liquor. 
Hence the enforcement of national prohibition depended on. a small force of 
Federal officers and on state and local officers who were willing but handicapped 
by lack of state law, so that it is not surprising that the second year of prohibition 
shows some increase over the first year in the matter of drunkenness and con- 
comitant conditions. 5 But, nevertheless, the alcoholic conditions in 1921, so far 
as they are revealed in public records, were vastly better than in the pre-prohibition 
period as the following pages will demonstrate. 

It should be noted, however, that liquor law violation has not sprung into 
existence with prohibition. It was here with the licensed saloon. Every person 
then found selling alcoholic liquors by the Federal revenue agents had to pay a 
United States tax. In 1910 there were 1,218 legal license holders in Boston, but 
1.605 persons paid Federal taxes for selling, showing that 387 sold illegally. In 
sixteen Massachusetts cities in 1910 there were 2,586 liquor licenses granted, but 
there were 3,627 persons who paid Federal internal revenue liquor taxes, a thou- 
sand traceable illegal sellers, or about 40 per cent as many illegal as legal places. 
The ratio of illegal sellers to population was two and one-third times as great in 
towns and cities having legal saloons as in no-license towns and cities.f These 
statistics can not be used to measure the comparative degree of law enforcement 
because of the difference in conditions. Such facts indicate that liquor law viola- 



JThe following official paragraph throws light on present day customs as to drink 
among a large group of students near Boston drawn from all over the country. 

Prof. Henry A. Yeomans, Dean of Harvard College, said in the report for the 
academic year 1920-21 : 

"It seems clear that irrespective of the effects of the war, the student body as a 
whole is more responsible and more sensible of its obligations to the community than it 
was twenty or even ten years ago. They take a keener interest in the problems of the 
general community and react more sharply to its feelings and opinions. 

"The use of alcoholic drinks, for instance, illustrates this tendency. If it be true, as 
many have thought, that since the passage of the eighteenth amendment a small group 
of students have drunk bad liquor with a bravado which has made them conspicuous, 
the same statement could be made as truthfully of small groups of their elders in most 
of our cities. 

"However this may be, it seems clear that fewer students drink alcoholic liquor and 
fewer students drink it to excess than ever before." — Harvard Alumni Bulletin, Jan. 26, 1922. 

*The bill enacting a state law for enforcement of national prohibition was signed by 
the governor of Massachusetts, May 17, 1922. As its opponents have petitioned for a 
popular referendum some months will elapse before it goes into force. 

"The last report of the late Police Commissioner Edwin U. Curtis (Dec. 1, 1921) 
said (p. 8) : "There is not on our statute books an act the same in all respects as the Vol- 
stead Act, and for that reason the handling of the liquor situation is and must be unsatis- 
factory. . . . There is no adequate enforcement act in this state with the result that the 
■-tate officers of the law come in for a great deal of well-meant but unjust criticism." 

tStudy by Geo. W. Alden : "More Dives and Kitchen Barrooms in License Places.'' 



8 WET AND DRY YEARS IN A DECADE 

tion went on before prohibition when ample provision had been made for legal 
traffic in alcoholic beverages. 

THE PERIOD STUDIED 

In order that a comprehensive view may be had of the conditions before and 
after prohibition, statistics are presented for ten consecutive years beginning with 
1912. A decrease in the arrests for drunkenness began in 1918 during the World 
War. This was due to several facts : There were three-quarters of a million of 
Massachusetts men in the army ; increased attention was given to law enforce- 
ment at the Government's insistent demand (Boston Herald, editorial Dec. 9, 
1921); in 1918 and 1919 there was full employment which prevented idleness; 
in 1917 6 had begun national restrictions on the manufacture and sale of alcoholic 
liquors which contributed to the increasing sobriety shown by the figures of the 
two years preceding the prohibition period. 

The tables show, therefore, six normal license years, four years of increas- 
ing restriction of which two and one-half years to December 31, 1921, were under 
national prohibition. 

Prohibition was designed to promote the general health and welfare. Grant- 
ing the restiveness indicated against the law, the question of the unprejudiced 
observer will naturally be: What are the net results so far of prohibition? Are 
the net results in view of law violations as bad as before, or is prohibition pro- 
ducing social benefits in directions anticipated? 

ARRESTS FOR DRUNKENNESS 

Drunkenness in Boston. The number of arrests for drunkenness in Boston 
in 1921 was the smallest in ten years except for 1920, also a prohibition year 
(Table 1). Although these arrests increased in 1921 over 1920. the average for 
the two prohibition years (26.393) was less than one-half the average for the 
seven wet years, 1912-1918. 7 

Foreign-horn and Non-resident Arrests. The foreign-born and non-resident 
elements in the arrests for drunkenness in Boston show an interesting change. 
Between the two census years 1915 and 1920 the proportion per hundred of for- 
eign-born population in the city dropped from 36 to 32. Foreign-born in 1915 



"May, 1917: War Department orders establishing prohibition zones around military 
camps, forbidding the sale of alcoholic liquors to men in army uniform, extended in 1918 
to the Navy. Sept. 8. 1917: the manufacture of distilled liquors ceased under the Food 
Control Act; the President empowered to prohibit the use of food materials in the manu- 
facture of beer and wine. Dec. 8, 1917: the use of foods and food materials in the manu- 
facture of beer reduced 30 per cent, by proclamation of the President. 

These restrictions reduced the amount of liquor available, resulted in increasing the 
price. This, plus the patriotic appeal for sobriety during the war, tended to reduce the 
consumption of alcoholic liquors before War Prohibition became effective, July 1. 1919. 

'The year 1919 is omitted from statistical comparison of averages of years ending at 
dates other than June 30, because it included only six months of prohibition (War Pro- 
hibition July 1-Dec. 31), hence was neither entirely "wet" nor entirely "dry." The status 
of that year can always be seen in the tables which show in most cases the effect of pro- 
hibition when the legal traffic is stopped and before organized illegal traffic gets into 
operation. The figures of 1919 should always be considered in connection with those for 
1920 and 1921. although for reasons of fairness in comparison, they are omitted from 
statistical averages. The term "wet years," as hereafter used, unless otherwise specified, 
means the average of the seven vears 1912-18; the term "dry vears" means the two years, 
1920 and 1921. 



OF MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC RECORDS 9 

furnished 46 in every hundred arrests for drunkenness ; in 1920, only 38 in a 
hundred. Thus while the foreign-born population ratio decreased 11 per cent.. 
its drinkers' arrest ratio decreased 17 per cent. 

The non-resident drinker was responsible for 47 in each one hundred arrests 
for drunkenness in the seven wet years ; for 32 in a hundred arrests in the two 
dry years. Fewer temptations to drink in the city may be one explanation. Some 
increase in arrests for drunkenness in outlying cities suggests that the drinker 
who formerly found his drink in Boston now gets it by illegal methods nearer 
home. Yet the number of these cases of drunkenness can not be large because 
the arrests for drunkenness in the entire state have also sharply decreased 
(Table 3). In any case the Boston police burden in caring for non-resident 
drinkers is lightened. « 

TABLE 1. Boston Arrests for Drunkenness 

Year ending Nov. 30 — Total Foreign-Born Non-Resid't 

1912 49,846 24,022 22,794 

1913 54,951 26,337 25,764 

1914 59,159 28,440 27,017 

1915 57,811 27,005 25,541 

1916 65,051 30,027 28,991 

1917 73,393 33,343 37,963 

1918 54,948 25,225 28,570 

1919 35,540 14,424 18,124 

1920 21,800 8,385 8,252 

1921 30,987 12,053 8,800 

Average 7 wet years 1912-1918 59,308 27,771 28,091 

Average 2 dry years 1920-1921 26,393 10,219 8,526 

Decrease , 55% 63% 69% 

(Annual Statistics from reports Boston Police Commissioner) 

Deer Island House of Correction. To the House of Corrections on Deer 
Island in Boston harbor the courts committed over 5,000 cases for drunkenness in 
each of the first three wet years of the decade. The average for the seven wet 
years was 4,281 (Table 2). In 1921 there were only 665 commitments for drunk- 
enness. Change in methods of dealing with drunkenness helped check this stream 
of population but the record for the decade (Table 2) shows in general the same 
sharp falling off as in other tables coincident with the war restrictions on the 
liquor traffic beginning in 1917-18. 

The feminine population of the, institution took an unexpected course with 
the coming of prohibition. The official report dated March 17, 1919, related that 
the average daily population of women had so largely increased in 1918 that the 
women's accommodations were seriously crowded for lack of the new woman's 
building which was being used temporarily by the United States Navy Depart- 
ment. "From an average population of 33,^ the report said, "our number ran 
up to nearly 100. If we are to continue to have a large number of women inmates, 
we must be ready to reinstate ourselves in the women's prison building as soon 
as possible." 1 

Three months and a half later, July 1, 1919, national prohibition became 

Report Boston Penal Institutions Department for 1918, pp. 30, 31, 35. 



10 WET AND DRV YEARS IN A DECADE 

effective. By the first of January, 1920, less than ten months after the complaint 
of over-crowding, "there were nearly as many matrons as there were female 
inmates." 2 There were so few women that those remaining were transferred to 
Boston jail and the courts were requested to make no further commitments to 
the House of Correction. The woman's building is closed. 

TABLE 2. Deer Island, Boston, Suffolk County House of Corrections 

Total Total Women Women 

Official Committed Committed for Committed Committed for 

Year 8 by Courts" Drunkenness 9 by Courts Drunkenness 

1912 7,892 5,731 821 619 

1913 7,352 5,022 755 565 

1914 8,105 5,366 671 492 

1915* 7,358 4,768 822 588 

1916 6,579 4,731 753 523 

1917 4,489 2,975 388 239 

1918 2,603 1,375 342 164 

1919 1,450 599 162 91 

1920 710 352 2 10 1 

1921 l,337t 665f 2f Of 

Average 7 wet years 1912-1918. 6,339 4,281 

Average 2 dry years 1920-1921. 1,023 508 

Decrease 83% 88% 

Boston jail apparently suffered no overcrowding by the closing of this Deer 
Island woman's building. More than a thousand women a year had been sentenced 
to the two institutions in four of the seven wet years of the decade; the annual 
average for the seven years was 972. In 1921 the number of women thus 
sentenced was 168. 3 

Drunkenness Arrests in Massachusetts. In the state of Massachusetts the 
arrests for drunkenness had steadily risen (Table 3) during the license years, 
reaching the highest number (129,455) in 1917. The annual average for the 
seven wet years was 108,123. In 1921 there were but 59,585. For the two pro- 
hibition years ending 1921 (Sept. 30) the average was only 48,372, less than 
one-half that of the wet years. 

The total arrests for drunkenness in the two dry years amounted to 96,745. 
One must go back thirty-four years to find another two-year period with so few. 
The population of the state had meanwhile increased over 80 per cent. 
ARRESTS FOR ALL OFFENSES 

The Crime Wave. The 72,161 arrests for all causes in Boston in 1921 were 
the fewest of the decade except in 1920, also a prohibition year, and the part 
prohibition year of 1919. The average for the seven wet years was 90,07° 



2 Report for 1920, page 8. 

3 Years ending Sept. 30. Statistics from Mass. Dept. of Corrections. 

8 The official year ends on Jan. 31 of the succeeding calendar year. Thus, the ngure^ 
for 1912 are for the twelve months ending Jan. 31, 1913. 

"Includes both men and women. 

10 No women retained at Deer Island since Feb. 10, 1920. If committed were trans 
ferred elsewhere. 

fltems thus marked have been supplied by officials in advance of published reportt- 
Always subject to minor variations in printed report. 
(Annual statistics from reports Penal Institutions Dept. 1920-21 from Institutions Dept. 1 






OF MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC RECORDS 11 

(Table 5a). Police officials declare that the increase in 1921 over 1920 repre- 
sents increased efficiency by the police force. Unemployment may be a factor, 
as shown by an increase of arrests for such offenses as breaking and entering and 
other crimes which would naturally result from unemployment. 

There were fewer arrests in Boston in 1921 for offenses against the person 
than in 1916 and 1917, the last normal wet years (Table 4) ; fewer for offenses 
against property with violence than in two of the wet pre-war years ; fewer for 
offenses against property without violence than in four of the seven wet years ; 
fewer for malicious offenses against property than in any of the wet years except 
1918; fewer for offenses against chastity than in any of the wet years. 

TABLE 3. Arrests for Drunkenness, Massachusetts 

Total in 
All Cities Mass. Mass. 

Year ending Sept. 30 — Arrests Arrests Population 

1912 87,586 98,651 

1913 , 94,445 104,936 

1914 98,515 108,185 

1915 96,866 106,146 3,693,100 

1916 107,295 116,655 

1917 118,146 129,455 

1918 85,447 92,838 

1919 72,849 79,212 

1920 34,415 37,160 3,852,326 

1921 54,252t 59,585t 

Average 7 license years 1912-1918. . 98,328 108,123 

Average 2 prohibition yrs. 1920-1921 44,333 48,372 

Decrease 55% 55% 

(Annual Statistics from reports of the Massachusetts Department of Corrections) 

It is true that there was an increase in 1921 over 1920 in arrests for the four 
groups of offenses against the person and property commonly thought of in con- 
nection with a "crime wave." (Table 4 a, b, c, d.) But while there were 8,709 
of these arrests in 1921, there had been an annual average of 9,212 during the wet 
years, and in a smaller population. 

Offenses Against Chastity. Especially interesting is the decline in arrests in 
Boston for offenses against chastity ; there was the smallest number in the decade 
in 1919, 1920 and 1921. The Mexican border and World War mobilizations may 
have been partly responsible for the high figures of 1915-1918, although the 
curves of arrests for drunkenness and for offences against chastity in Boston in 
the decade show a general tendency to rise and fall simultaneously. The highest 
point in both groups of arrests was reached in 1917. The increase in 1921 over 
1920 accompanies, an increase in drunkenness. But the average for the three 
years unaccompanied by military movements, 1912-1914, was 1,896; for the two 
dry years was 1,671. The return of the soldiers in 1919 and 1920 was not ac- 
companied by an increase, as in some other countries, but by a decrease. 

Arrests of Non-residents for All Causes. There were 16,033 fewer non- 
residents arrested in Boston in 1921 than in the average wet year, a decrease of 
almost one-half, which would suggest that Boston police were thereby given more 
opportunity to attend to offenses committed by the city's, own citizens. 



12 



WET AND DRY YEARS IN A DECADE 



Massachusetts Crime. In the state of Massachusetts, arrests for all causes 
had been steadily mounting until they had reached in 1917 a climax of 209,116. 
There were but 152,066 in 1921, a decrease of 14 per cent, from the average for 
the seven wet years. (Table 6.) 

TABLE 4. Arrests in Boston for Offenses Other Than Drunkenness 



Duri 


ng year 


ending 


Nov. 30 


(a) 

Offenses 

against 

the person 


(b) 
Offenses 
against 
property 
with vio- 
lence 


(c) 
Offenses 

against 
property 

without 
violence 


(d) 
Malicious 
offenses 
against 
property 


(e) 
Offenses 
against 
chastity 


Other 
offenses 
not drunk- 
enness* 


1912 








. 3,422 


510 


3,693 


165 


1,916 


15,944 


1913 








. 3,764 


504 


3,958 


222 


1,884 


16,484 


1914 








. 3,879 


689 


5,036 


217 


1,889 


18,336 


1915 








. 3,793 


688 


4,712 


212 


2,455 


19,091 


1916 








. 5,058 


552 


3,864 


267 


2,987 


18,697 


1917 








. 4,825 




4,655 


209 


3,166 


21,752 


1918 








. 3,739 


629 


4,546 


132 


2,976 


23,323 


1919 








. 3,551 


716 


4,310 


146 


1.763 


21,921 


1920 








. 3,046 


565 


3,486 


101 


1,462 


28,357 


1921 








. 3,771 


632 


4,162 


144 


1,881 


30.584 


Av. 7 


license 


years 


1912-18 . 


. 4,068 


589 


4,352. 


203 


2,467 




Av. 2 


prohibition yrs 1920-21 


. 3,408 


598 


3,824 


122 


1,671 










. 16% Inc. 1% Dec. 12% 


39% 


32% 















*These include a large number of miscellaneous arrests about one-half of which in 
1921 were for violation of street traffic regulations (1,930) and of automobile law (9,408) 
and arrests of suspicious persons (3,926). 

Annual statistics from Reports Police Commissioner of Boston. 

Arrests are divided into three groups: (1) offenses against the person, 
(2) offenses against property, (3) offenses against public order. While all three 
groups were larger in 1921 than in 1920, the arrests for offenses against the per- 
son were fewer in 1921 than for any wet year, except 1918; public order offenses 
were fewer than in any year of the decade, except 1920. These are the two 
groups where improvement would be expected as a result of prohibition. The 
gain to public order in these two groups under prohibition is still more conspicu- 
ous when the average for the two prohibition years is compared with the aver- 

TABLE 5. Arrests for All Causes in Boston 

a b c 

Year ending Nov. 30 — Total 

1912 75,496 

1913 81.767 

1914 89,205 

1915 88,762 

1916 96,476 

1917 108.556 

1918 90,293 

1919 67,947 

1920 58,817 

1921 72,161 

Average 7 license years 1912-18 90,079 

Average 2 prohibition years 1920-21 65,489 

Decrease 27% 

(Annual statistics from Reports Boston Police Con 



eign-Born 


Non-Resid't 


33,837 


28,645 


36,350 


31,800 


39,156 


34.450 


38,108 


33,183 


41,325 


36,825 


45,479 


47,183 


37,315 


38,395 


24,776 


27.325 


20,918 


18.953 


26,297 


19,752 


38,795 


35,783 


23,607 


19.352 


39% 


45% 



OF MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC RECORDS 13 

age for the wet years (Table 6) — a decrease of 19 per cent, in the prohibition 
years in offenses against the person; a decrease of 27 per cent, in offenses against 
public order. 

TABLE 6. Massachusetts Arrests by Classes 

(a) (b) (c) 

Offenses Offenses Offenses (d) 

Year Ending Against Against Per 100,000 Against Total 

Sept. 30— the Person Property Pop. Public Order Arrests 

1912 10,197 11,980 133,310 155,487 

1913 11,052 13,157 142,415 166,624 

1914 11,053 15,393 150,172 176,618 

1915 11,106 15,942 431 1 151,962 179,010 

1916 10,823 12,849 162,690 186,362 

1917 11,088 15,258 182,770 209,116 

1918 8,941 15,218 149,131 173,290 

1919 8,924 16,786 134,682 160,592 

1920 7,739 12,971 94,916 115,626 

1921 9,546f 16,267f 418 2 126,253f 152,066f 

Av. 7 wet years 1912-18... 10,608 14,256 153,207 178,072 

Av. 2 dry years 1920-21... 8,642 14,619 110,584 133,846 

Decrease 19% *2% 27% 24% 

(Annual statistics from Reports Police Commissioner of Boston). 

*Gain in total but a decrease per 100,000 population. 

^ased on State Census for 1915. 

''Based on 1921 population, estimate 3,885,836. 

Arrests for offenses against property averaged slightly more in 1920-21 tnan 
in the wet years. (Table 6b.) This may reflect hard times; it may indicate in- 
creased police efficiency including the work of the newly organized State Police 
in 1921. With nearly 60,000 fewer arrests for drunkenness than in the average 
wet year, police may be able to give more attention to protecting property. As a 
matter of fact even the 16,267 arrests for offenses against property in 1921 rep- 
resent a measurable gain over conditions in 1915 (also a year of unemployment) 
when there were 431 arrests per 100,000 population for offenses against property, 
while in 1921 there were but 418. 

FEWER WOMEN BEFORE THE COURTS 

What is the effect of prohibition on women, has been asked ? One answer 
is 5,233 fewer women arrested for all offenses in Massachusetts in 1921 than in 
the last pre-war "wet" year, 1916 (Table 7) ; forty-two hundred (4,218) fewer 
than in the average wet year. 

There has been a decrease of over two-thirds in the arrests of women for 
drunkenness. During the seven wet years there was an annual average of 7,273 
women arrested in Massachusetts for drunkenness. In the two dry years, the 
average was only 2,251. 

This change affects particularly the life of the cities, for about nine-tenths 
of the arrested women came from the cities, and more than half of them from 
Boston alone. In Boston the average of 8,231 women arrested for all causes in 
the wet years had dropped to 5,020 in 1921. The average for the two prohibition 
years was 43 per cent below that of the seven wet years. The drunkenness 



14 WET AND DRY YEARS IN A DECADE 

arrests fell from an average of 4,743 in the wet years to 1,494 in the prohibition 
years. 

Arrests of women in Boston for offenses against chastity were fewer in 1921 
than in any wet year of the decade. There were but 794 arrests for this offense ; 
in the seven wet years the annual average was 1,192. 

TABLE 7. Arrests of Women 

r-Boston-^ r-Massachusetts— > 

r- Year Ending Nov. 30— > r-Year Ending Sept. 30^ 

All Causes Drunkenness All Causes Drunkenness 

1912 .....7,248 4,369 11,624 6,932 

1913 7,604 4,563 12,309 7,272 

1914 7,704 4,734 12,144 7,223 

1915 8,308 5,017 12,763 7.451 

1916 9,043 5,404 13,958 8,006 

1917 9.473 5.315 14,726 8,207 

1918 8,241 3,803 13,078 5,822 

1919 5,663 2,500 11,058 4,784 

1920 4,285 1,328 7,043 1,868 

1921 5,020 1,661 8,725f 2,634f 

Av. 7 license years 1912-18 8,231 4,743 12,943 7,273 

Av. 2 prohibition years 1920-1921. 4,652 1,494 7,884 2,251 

Decrease 43% 68% 39% 69% 

(Annual Statistics from reports Boston Police Commissioner, State Dept. of Corrections) 

PRISON POPULATION 

The women have apparently gained more than the men under prohibition, 
perhaps because they are less -exposed to the bootleggers' blandishments and are 
less likely to seek out the tribe. At all events the average number of women in all 
penal institutions of Massachusetts on September 30, 1920 and 1921 of the two 
dry years (Table 9d) was the lowest of the decade, 60 per cent, smaller than the 
wet years' average, while the total prison population on this date had dropped 52 
per cent. 

Reformatory for Women. A decrease of practically one-half in the number 
of commitments to the State Reformatory for Women in the two prohibition years 
( Table 8a) carries a stage farther the story, not only of the passing of the alco- 
holic women from penal institutions, but also of other women offenders. In 1921 
there were but 6 women committed for drunkenness to the State Reformatory for 
Women, about 5 per cent, of the total commitments as compared with a yearly 
average of 20 per cent, in the seven wet years. The commitments from the 
courts for all offenses in 1920 were 102; in 1921, were 118; in the wet years the 
average was 219. In Miss Woods' report in 1920. Mrs. Jessie D. Hodder, Super- 
intendent of the Reformatory, is quoted as saying, "Now that the old rounders are 
being eliminated from our Reformatory population, we are getting a much higher 
type of younger girl, the sort a Reformatory should receive." In a letter (March 
3, 1922) Mrs. Hodder writes > "We see no reason to change our statement." 

The Massachusetts Reformatory had 268 men sentenced to it in 1921. 
(Table 8b.) Although this was a larger number than in 1920 and the two pre- 
ceding full employment years, the number of sentences was smaller than that of 
six ' of the seven wet years and 25 per cent, below the average of the wet 



OF MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC RECORDS 15 

years (361). Doubtless, too, some allowance must be made here for increased 
use of probation with youthful offenders. 

TABLE 8. Prison Population 

(a) Reformatory for (b) State Reformatory 

Women — Commitm'ts Men — Commitm'ts (c) State Farm 

, — by Courts—^ Pop. f— by Courts— ^ Pop. , — Commitments bv Courts-^ Pop. 

Year Ending Drunk- Sept. Drunk- Sept. Drunk- Vag- Sept. 

Sept. 30 Total enness 30 Total enness 30 Total enness rancy 30 

1912 208 56 186 353 31 618 3,404 2,897 341 1,475 

1913 206 42 237 453 26 672 3,564 3,082 306 1,420 

1914 258 51 310 441 14 716 3,184 2,566 387 1,447 

1915 223 44 305 473 35 733 3,275 2,605 551 1,408 

1916 179 39 265 294 12 528 3,191 2,755 353 1,341 

1917 202 48 268 291 9 553 2,920 2,532 309 1,188 

1918 259 28 363 221 5 401 1,180 948 184 529 

1919 226 31 261 267 4 428 1,046 802 194 366 

1920 102 5 174 203 359 370 253 88 250 

1921 118 6 180 268 2 502 645 435 185 440 

Av. 7 wet yrs. 

1912-1918 .... 219 44 276 361 19 603 2,959 2.483 347 1,258 

Av. 2 dry yrs. 

1920-1921 .... 110 5 177 235 1 431 507 344 136 345 

Decrease .... 49% 88% 35% 34% 94% 28% 82% 86% 60% 72% 

(Annual Statistics 1912-1920 from reports of the Mass. Department of Corrections) 

The State Farm population is made up of drunkards, insane criminals, and 
almshouse paupers from southeastern Massachusetts. Here are committed those 
drunkards "broadly speaking who have resisted advice, repeated probation, fines 
and short imprisonments in Houses of Correction." 13 Kelso 14 says of it : 

"Until the shortage in intoxicating beverages set in, the State Farm was one 
of the most populous prison farms for drunkards and vagrants to be found in the 
United States. The institution has a tract of 1,420 acres under intensive culti- 
vation. Since the coming of prohibition the inmate population has not afforded 
enough labor to keep the farm tilled, and the state is already considering the 
\\ isdom of converting this immense plant to other uses." 

During the wet years of decade an annual average of 2,959 prisoners was 
committed to the State Farm of whom 2,483 were committed for drunkenness. 
( Table 8c.) In 1921 there were but 645 commitments of which 435 were for 
drunkenness. The average for the two prohibition years shows a decrease of 
more than 80 per cent, from the wet years. "Numberless drunkards," said the 
superintendent's report for 1920, "threw up the sponge when the approved and 
legalized former opportunities were swept away by the thoughtful, conscientious 
verdict of their sober f ellowmen, and they have kept the faith. During the busy 
industrial period of the war, commitments greatly decreased beginning with 1918. 
"Had the open saloon continued, the increased commitments would have over- 
crowded the place." In an interview July 9, 1921, the superintendent said: "Pro- 
hibition has stalled off a great deal of crime ; has decreased the number of first 
commitments. We believe that it is a good thing, that it has come to stay. Any 

"Personal communication. Mar. 8, 1922. 

"Robert W. Kelso, Former Secretary Mass. State Board of Charities, in Poor Relief in 
Massachtisetts, 1922, page 159. 



16 WET AND DRY YEARS IN A DECADE 

loss of the population at the State Farm is almost entirely due to decreased 
drunkenness." 

Vagrancy. Commitments to the State Farm for vagrancy decreased by 60 
per cent, in the two prohibition years when compared with the average of the 
"wet" period. Though there were more vagrants committed in the unemployment 
year of 1921 than in 1920, there were only 185 of them as compared with 551 in 
the previous unemployment year of 1915 and the 1921 figure was lower than that 
of any wet year except 1918. 

The prison population of the State Farm, Sept. 30, 1921, was but 440, about 
one-third of the average population (1,258) on the same date of the seven wet 
years. There were only one-fourth as many as in 1915. 

Jails and Houses of Correction. There were formerly twenty institutions in 
Massachusetts known as jails or combined jails and houses of correction. Their 
annual average population on September 30 for the seven wet years of the decade 
(1912-1918) was 2,857, reaching the highest point of the decade in 1914 with a 
population of 3,599 (Table 9b). Since 1915, their population at this date never 
reached the 3,000 mark and steadily declined until in 1920 it was but 1,028. The 
number rose in 1921, but still was but little more than half the average for the 
seven "wet" years. One jail was closed in 1919. Five were closed in 1920 and 
two others though not officially closed were empty as they practically had been 
for years. 

The increased use of probation for cases formerly committed to these insti- 
tutions contributed to the decrease in 1916. This will be discussed later (page 17). 

TABLE 9. Prison Population (Continued) 
Remaining in Institutions 

Total All Penal Institutions 

(a) (b) (c) (d) 

Year Ending Sept. 30 — State Prison County Jails Total Women 

1912 758 3,207 6,363 677 

1913 728 3,189 6,377 732 

1914 690 3,599 6,877 765 

1915 761 3,320 6,663 839 

1916 706 2,713 5,657 711 

1917 648 2,346 5,239 684 

1918 556 1,628 3,701 718 

1919 537 1,170 2,896 440 

1920 483 1,028 2,386 269 

1921 525f l,503t 3,252f 314f 

Average 7 wet years 1912-1918. ... 692 2,857 5,839 732 

Average 2 dry years 1920-1921.... 504 1,265 2,819 291 

Decrease 27% 56% 52% 60% 

(Annual statistics from reports of Massachusetts Department of Corrections) 

The State Prison. Similar facts as to decreased population could be given 
of other institutions, the details of which will be found in Table 9. Even the 
State Prison where prisoners are committed for the most serious offenses had a 
population lower at the close of the two prohibition years and the semi-prohibi- 
tion year of 1919 than in any preceding wet year of the decade. (Table 9a.) 



OF MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC RECORDS 17 

On September 30, 1921, the population was 525; the average for the two dry 
years was 504 ; the average for the wet years was 692. 

TABLE 10. Convictions and Probation Cases 









Per Cent 




Total 


Total Pro- 


Probation Cases 


Year ending Sept. 30 — 


Convictions 


bation Cases 


of Total 


1912 


156,857 


16,067 


10.2 


1913 


180,127 


21,074 


11.6 


1914 


184,722 


24,704 


13.3 


1915 


115,157 


27,994 


24.3 


1916 


110,324 


28,953 


26.2 


1917 


121,210 


30,588 


25.2 


1918 


93,082 


24,017 


25.8 


1919 


96,542 


24,537 


25.4 


1920 


78,576 


18,209 


23.2 


1921 


95,624 


23,845 


24.7 



(Statistics from Mass. Deputy Commissioner of Probation) 
Why Prison Population Decreased. How much of the decrease of prison 
population in the prohibition years was due to prohibition ; how much to changing 
methods of dealing with offenders ? The question can not be answered statistically 
even while showing statistical differences. The facts concerning the decade seem 
to be these: 

The number of arrests in Massachusetts had steadily increased, culminating 
in 1917 with 209,116 arrests for all causes. But the steady rise in arrests was not 
accompanied by a proportional rise in penal population although for many years 
there had been a slow upward trend in the latter. Changes in methods of dealing 
with offenders such as the development of the probation system, the release of 
persons arrested for drunkenness without arraignment, the use of the suspended 
sentence, had been a check on the number sent to penal institutions. Yet in no 
year between 1891 and 1915 did the number of persons remaining in penal insti- 
tutions on September 30 fall below 6,000. 

The proportion of convicted persons placed on probation rose from 13 per 
cent, in 1914 to 24 per cent, in 1915 and 26 per cent in 1916. Here came the first 
real break in penal population of the decade, 1912-21. In the succeeding three 
years the proportion of probation cases did not materially .change, but the penal 
population continued to decrease, partly, perhaps because the probation officials 
were being charged more and more with some serious offenders formerly sent to 
institutions. Through 1917 and 1918 this decrease at the institutions is made up 
of the factors of probation, the war which removed from the state several hundred 
thousand men, full employment, and, in 1918, the war restrictions on alcoholic 
liquors (see p. 8). In 1919, the influence of probation, full employment and con- 
tinued war liquor restrictions were augmented by war prohibition beginning July 
first, and the expected rise in penal population following the armistice did not 
occur; 15 instead, the prison population continued to decrease. 

The Massachusetts Director of Prisons wrote in his Annual Report for 1919 
(page 9) : 



'Report of Commissioner of Prisons. Public Document No. 13, 1900, pp. 222-3. 






18 WET AND DRY YEARS IN A DECADE 

"Not since prison statistics in this state have been compiled have there been so few com- 
mitments to the penal institutions of the Commonwealth as the number of persons committed 
during the year ending Sept. 30, 1919. There were but 8,596 males and 1,168 females 'com- 
mitted to the state and county prisons during this period. It was expected by those familiar 
with penal problems that there would be a sharp rise in the prison population immediately 
following the armistice and subsequent demobilization of troops. War-time prohibition put 
into effect last July added another cause to those already existing for our low population. The 
probation system and abnormal industrial conditions to which in a measure the low prison 
population was due still continue potent factors and to these is now added the prohibition 
amendment. It is doubtful with prohibition in effect if we shall see a very great increase in 
the number of commitments for many years to come. 

"The task of dealing with offenders is made somewhat easier by the withdrawal from 
consideration of the drunkards and those offenders whose crimes were due to the excessiAe 
use of intoxicants. The prison population today is made up of the mental defectives, the 
accidental offenders to a smaller degree than ever (italics ours), and the normal who is either 
a drug addict or addicted to the use of intoxicants. 

"We may expect the continued low number of commitments of female offenders. Prosti- 
tution, which in a large measure was due to the liquor dispensing cafes, is considerably on 
the wane." 

In 1920, employment was slackening, the percentage of convicted placed on 
probation was the smallest since 1915 ; only about 50 per cent, of the arrested 
"drunks" were released without arraignment as compared with 70 per cent, or 
more in former years, indicating that "the court now wishes to deal with the 
inebriate rather than let him go after arrest without discipline." * There was no 
change in the proportion of drunkenness cases among suspended sentences. But 
the penal population remaining Sept. 30, 1920 (2,386) was not only the lowest of 
the decade; it was lower by 1,600 than the next smallest number recorded on this 
date through all the years since 1883 when there had been 3,981 prisoners. . . . 

In 1921, came extensive unemployment, some increase in drunkenness 
arrests, and some rise in the penal population, yet the latter was still smaller by 
700 on September 30th than that previous low record of thirty-seven years before. 

The annual average of all sentences to penal institutions in the two prohibi- 
tion years dropped off 74 per cent from the average for the seven wet years : 
sentences for offenses other than drunkenness dropped 58 per cent ; sentences for 
drunkenness dropped 83 per cent. Reference to the tables will show that a large 
part of the decrease in prison population occurred at the State Farm whose super- 
intendent has already been quoted as saying that any loss there is "almost entirely 
due to decreased drunkenness." (p. 16.) It would appear, therefore, that while 
during the decade there were several factors at work tending to reduce the prison 
population, the decrease in drunkenness and accompanying offenses had a pre- 
ponderating influence in the special decrease which appeared in 1920 and 1921. 

The institutional increase in 1921 may even mean a better administration ol 
law under prohibition. As arrests for drunkenness have fallen one half and 
arrests for all causes nearly one-fourth (Tables 3 and 6d), the police officials may 
be able to give more attention to apprehending offenders who need institutional 
penalties. As the Boston Herald recently said of the increased prison population 



'Report Deputy Commissioner on Probation. Public Document No. 85. 1920, p. \', 



OF MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC RECORDS 19 

of the state: "It also suggests that the law is getting hold of the malefactors and 
putting them where they will do less harm." 

Further, elimination of the drunkenness factor in offenses tends to more 
appropriate dealing with the drinking offender. Cases brought to court are said 
by officials to be freer from the drunkenness element that formerly complicated 
trial for various offenses. With this drunkenness element reduced there is addi- 
tional safety for society. There is less danger than an offender will be merely 
convicted of drunkenness and the other offense overlooked. 
CHILDREN GAIN AS DRINK LOSES 

The children are having a better chance under prohibition. Arrests of 
minors for all causes fell off slightly in Boston (about one per cent.) in the two 
prohibition years from the wet years' average; but the average of arrests of 
minors for drunkenness decreased 34 per cent. (Table lid and e. ) 

Arrests of Young Children. Arrests in Boston of children under ten years 
of age have dropped almost one-half (45 per cent.) in the prohibition years; 
arrests of children ten years old, but under fifteen fell off 21 per cent. (Table 11). 
In. 1921 the total number of arrests of children under fifteen years of age was the 
smallest in the ten years. Compared with the wet years' average this represents a 
saving of about 600 children of this tender age who should be in the home rather 
than within the arm of the law. (Table lie.) 

TABLE 11. Arrests of Youth in Boston 

(a) (b) 

Under Ten Years (c) (d) (e) 

Year Ending 10 Years and Under Total Under Minors Drunk- 

Nov. 30 of Age 15 Years IS Years All Causes enness 

1912 328 1,718 2,046 8,024 935 

1913 377 1,917 2,294 8,617 920 

1914 378 2,050 2,428 8,579 664 

1915 380 2,048 2,428 8,088 495 

1916 392 2,004 2,396 7,730 497 

1917 362 2,160 2,522 8,596 514 

1918 339 2,533 2,872 10,001 620 

1919 309 2,172 2,481 9,660 480 

1920 197 1,631 1,828 7,997 326 

1921 201 1,607 1,808 8,724 546 

Average 7 wet years 1912-1918.. 365 2,061 2,426 8,519 663 

Average 2 dry years 1920-1921 .. 199 1,619 1,818 8,360 436 

Decrease 45% 21% 25% 1% 34% 

(Annual statistics from reports Boston Police Commissioner) 

Neglected, Wayward and Delinquent Children. Arrests of the groups known 
as the neglected, wayward and delinquent children accounted for in Boston police 
reports are decreasing in numbers (Table 12). The neglected and wayward 
reached in 1921 their lowest point in a decade ; the number of delinquent children 
was the lowest since 1912. There were 539 fewer delinquent children on the 
police records in 1921 than the average for the seven wet years (Table 12c). 

The Drunkenness Factor. Drunkenness appears to be vanishing as a pres- 
ent factor in dependency and neglect of children placed in the care of the City 
Division of Child Welfare. The "dependent" children are without parents or 



20 WET AND DRY YEARS IN A DECADE 

their parents are temporarily unable to care for them. "Neglected" children are 
received from the courts — the result of broken homes or of improper environ- 
ment. 18 

TABLE 12. Offenses of Children in Boston 

In Police Records 

Children Children 

Year Ending Nov. 30 — Neglected Wayward Delinquent Total 

1912 208 19 2,229 2,456 

1913 252 9 2,673 2,934 

1914 218 15 2,903 3,136 

1915 217 20 2,810 3,047 

1916 208 16 2,943 3,167 

1917 190 16 3,121 3,327 

1918 148 13 3,642 3,803 

1919 175 20 3,061 3,256 

1920 106 8 2,413 2,527 

1921 71 7 2,364 2,442 

Average 7 wet years 1912-1918 206 15 2,903 3,124 

Average 2 dry years 1920-1921 88 7 2,388 2,484 

Decrease 57% 53% 17% 20% 

(Annual statistics from reports Boston Police Commissioner) 

The table (Table 13) presenting the change in parental drunkenness is worth 
study. It shows that during the wet years there were, on the average, 18 drunken 
fathers to every 100 dependent children. In the two dry years there was barely 
one drunken father to 100 children. In 1921, when hard times evidently brought 
an exceptional number of dependent children, drunkenness was recorded of but 
2 fathers to 282 children, less than one per cent. 

There was no drunkenness of mothers of dependent children in either 1920 
or 1921 : in the wet years, 3 of each 100 children had drunken mothers. 

There were no dependent children in 1919, 1920 or 1921 wuth both parents 
intemperate ; in the wet years, 2 of each 100 children had drunken father and 
mother. 

Undoubtedly, if the cases were further analyzed, former drinking would 
have been found in part responsible for the dependent children of 1921. 

Among the neglected children admitted to the Boston Division of Child 
Welfare the disappearance of the drunkenness factor is still more marked. 

There was no drunkenness in fathers in 1920 or in 1921 ; in the wet years, 
on the average, one child in every 4 had a drunken father. 

There were no drunken mothers in 1920; only one in 1921. 

No cases were reported in 1921 in which both parents were intemperate ; in 
the wet years one child in every 7 had two drunken parents. 

In Massachusetts the average number of neglected children annually before 
the lower courts in the seven wet years was 1,005 and was showing a nearly con- 
stant tendency to increase. In 1921 there were but 724 cases. 

The Juvenile Court. The Boston Juvenile Court in 1921 had the smallest 
number of new cases in the decade, with the exception of 1916 (Table 15). The 

"City Document, No. 14, 1921, p. 2. 



OF MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC RECORDS 21 

average for the seven wet years was 1,072; for the two prohibition years, 930. a 
decrease of 13 per cent. 

TABLE 13. Children Admitted to Boston City Division of Child Welfare 

, Dependent Children s , Neglected Children .. 

, — Parental Drunkenness — N , — Parental Drunkenness — > 

Both Both 

Year Total Father Mother Parents Total Father Mother Parents 

1912" 117 25 8 2 35 6 10 4 

1913 137 41 1 4 32 6 7 1 

1914 139 23 8 5 38 5 2 8 

1915 147 29 6 2 34 14 4 4 

1916 191 23 7 2 32 10 3 8 

1917 203 40 5 3 32 11 3 9 

1918 197 21 1 5 28 5 4 

1919 181 15 5 29 4 

1920 168 3 23 

1921 282 2 7 1 

Proportion of total cases 

7 wet years 1912-18.. 18% 3% 2% 247c 14% 14% 

Proportion of total cases 

2 dry years 1920-21 . . 1.1% 3% 

(An. statistics from Rpts. Boston Children's Institutions Dept.. now Child Welfare Dept.) 

"Year ends Jan. 31 of following calendar year. 

The number of neglected children before the Juvenile Court decreased 52 
per cent, in the prohibition years. There were only 40 of them in 1921. as compared 
with an annual average of 118 in the wet years, while in the preceding unemploy- 
ment year, 1915, there had been 138 neglected children before this court. 

TABLE 14. Neglected Children Before the Lower Courts of Massachusetts 
Year Ending Sept. 30 — 

1912 989 

1913 993 

1914 963 

1915 995 

1916 1,023 

(Annual statistics from Reports of Massachusetts Department of Corrections) 

There is some increase in juvenile delinquents in the State but this, Mr. Her- 
bert C. Parsons, Deputy Probation Commissioner, informs the writer, is due to 
enlarging facilities of lower courts for handling juvenile cases, which results in 
bringing to the courts cases which were formerly handled by the police or other- 
wise. For this reason the Massachusetts figures are not comparable and are not 
included here. The Boston figures (Table 15) represent a consistent policy and 
therefore are the best index of what is happening to juvenile delinquency under 
prohibition. 

Mr. Parsons says that the decrease in juvenile delinquency in Boston is con- 
spicuously due to better conditions in the homes resulting from prohibition. Pro- 
bation officers find that school attendance improves ; children are better fed, better 
clothed with warmer clothing in winter and rubbers for days of rain and snow. 

School attendance officials agree in these conclusions from their experience 
with school children. They 'find that attendance at school is more regular and the 



Year Ending Sept. 30 — 

1917 


1,013 


1918 


1,062 


1919... 


835 


1920 


.... 847 


1921 


724t 



22 WET AND DRY YEARS IN A DECADE 

children come in better condition. The calls for clothing and shoes for school 
children when there is need are fewer than formerly, even in the hard times of 
the past winter (1921-22). 

TABLE 15. Juvenile Offenders 

Boston Juvenile 

Court Neglected 19 

Year Ending Sept. 30 — Cases Begun 18 Children 

1912 1,056 152 

1913 1,177 180 

1914 1,120 132 

1915 967 138 

1916 783 84 

1917 1,097 84 

1918 1,308 60 

1919 1,364 66 

1920 983 72 

1921 878f 40f 

Average 7 wet years 1912-1918 1,072 118 

Average 2 dry years 1920-1921 930 56 

Decrease 13% 52% 

(Annual Statistics from Reports Mass. Department of Corrections) 

Individual cases reveal in picturesque fashion some home changes affecting 
the children. Funds in two sections in and near Boston formerly kept for buying 
clothing for children who could not attend school for lack of them, in the early 
winter of 1922 had no applicants. A mission in one of the former saloon sec- 
tions of the city reports that ''the low aspect of life in the home is gradually 
disappearing, and many of the men are taking an interest and pride in seeing their 
children on an equal footing with their thrifty neighbors. There has been a 
greater interest in the homes as a result of closing the saloons. Our visitors find 
that a larger number of people spend their evenings at home who formerly spent 
them in the saloon. A greater interest is developed in the homes and for the 
provision of those in the home." 20 Sober fathers at home tend to better disci- 
pline ; the drinking father, and especially the one who was "sent up" for drunken- 
ness, was often a seriously demoralizing factor in the moral training of the 
children. 

The Alcoholic Home and Delinquency. Healy in his study of a thousand 
juvenile delinquents whose average age was about 15^2 years found drunkenness 
in the environment in 311 cases (31 per cent.). 21 He pointed out the different 
features of a defective environment which may be caused by parental alcoholism 
which have a bearing on the careers of boys and girls such as "poverty, lack of 
control, neglect of proper nourishment, clothing or other hygienic conditions : 
crowded housing with all its miserable physical and moral incidents ; neglect of 
attention to schooling and mental and moral development; irrational discipline 
immodest behavior and use of obscene language on the part of a parent 

"Represents individuals. 
19 Before the court. 

"Personal communication. March 6, 1922. 
"William Healy: The Individual Delinquent. 15114 pp. 264-266. 






-— 



OF MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC RECORDS 23 

which we have frequently found to be one of the main causes of a girl going 
wrong ; lowered moral inhibitions ; quarreling and bickering and devel- 

opment of a grudge in a home. . . . All these things and still others have 
to be reckoned with when there is alcoholism of a parent." 

It is not t'o be supposed that all this would disappear at once ; human habits 
and nature do not change as rapidly as that. Yet a decrease of 20 per cent, in the 
prohibition years in the number of cases of young children handled by the police 
department, a decrease of 13 per cent, in new juvenile court cases are augury of 
what may be hoped for with still better observance and enforcement of the pro- 
hibition law. 

HOME LIFE 

Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children. How home conditions bet- 
tered by prohibition mean gain for children is shown by the district and state 
reports for 1920 and 1921 of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of 
Cruelty to Children. Not all the districts saw conspicuous improvement but the 
following comments, each from a different district, illustrate some of the reasons 
why juvenile delinquency cases decrease. 

"An outstanding feature of the year's work (1920) is that the average num- 
ber of elements per case is much smaller than in past years. I believe the reason 
is the absence of liquor ; intemperance always brings a number of other factors 
into the situation mainly physical neglect and non-support. . . . Out of 147 
cases [in 1920], in only 4 was the element of drunkenness found; in 1917, out of 
133 cases there were 70 containing the element of intemperance." 

"Although there has been no decrease in the number of families, there has 
been a sharp decline in the factors of drunkenness, physical neglect, and non- 
support, making the removal of children from their homes less imperative. Better 
clothed, better fed, happier children have to be seen to be appreciated." 

"In no instance have the reports of intemperance cases this year reached more 
than one-third of the 1916 figures." 

"Drink is becoming unusual as one of the principal elements in a family 
situation." 

The statements were made in the reports of 1920. 

A year later, in 1921, the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty 
to Children analyzed 4,352 cases handled during the year. Intemperance as a 
factor occurred in 734 or 16.8 per cent. A similar analysis of 2,056 cases in 1916 
had found intemperance a factor in 47.7 per cent. 

Thus intemperance "has passed from second to sixth place on our list [of 
causes] . . . as a factor in our work has decreased to a little more than a third 
of what it was five years ago."* 

To supplement these facts a special study was made by the Society in 1921 
of 144 families known in 1916 as suffering primarily from intemperance in a year 
generally prosperous and little disturbed socially and industrially by the war. 
The families were distributed quite evenly over 9 counties. In 1916 in the 144 
families there were 210 known alcoholics; in 1921, but 94. 



*Annual Rept. Mass. Soc'y. for Prevention of Cruelty to Children. 1921. p. 20. 



24 WET AND DRY YEARS IN A DECADE 

In 115, or 79 per cent., of the families in 1921 definite improvement was found 
in the following respects: 

88 in total income 

27 in general health 

66 in physical care of children 

28 in medical care of children 
36 in moral care of children 
74 in general home conditions 

In general these improvements were frankly attributed to the effect of pro- 
hibition. 

"We can say in the light of our experience and study," says the 1921 annual 
report, "that national prohibition has brought very definite tangible results to child 
and family life, and has substantially reduced intemperance as a cause of family 
break-down and child neglect." 

Prior to July 1, 1919, when national war prohibition became effective, there 
were removed from these families 167 children with only 47 returned. After 
July 1. 1919, there were but 16 removed and 30 returned. "That is, before July 
1, 1919, four times as many children were received as returned, while thereafter 
we have secured the return of twice as many children as have been removed." 

The aggregate of persons sentenced to institutions and placed on proba- 
tion for non-support in domestic relations cases was the lowest in 1920 and 
1921 of the eight years for which comparable statistics are available. The 
decrease in commitments to institutions is not significant, for the policy in such 
cases in recent years is to avoid such commitments if possible and to compel sup- 
port where due. The increase in collections demonstrates the success of the 
policy. Taking together the commitments and the probation cases for non-sup- 
port, the average for the five wet years was 2,337; for the two dry years, 1,611. 

TABLE 15a. Non-Support in Massachusetts 

(a) 
Committed to (b) 

Year Ending Institutions for Placed on (c) 

Sept. 30 — Non-Support Probation Total Collections 

1914 779 1,302 2,041 $189,830.67 

1915 860 1,328 2,188 221,129.12 

1916 '■;■;.; 783 1,756 2,539 303,009.01 

1917 789 1,991 2,780 407.057.63 

1918 432 1,665 2,097 485,339.18 

1919 326 1,632 1,958 635,887.42 

1920 179 1,253 1,432 838,031.75 

1921 311t 1.479t l,790t 821,378.11 

Average 5 wet years 1914-18 2,337 

Average 2 dry years 1920-21 .... 1,611 

Decrease . 31% 

a from office of Mass. Dept. of Corrections, 
b & c from Herbert C. Parsons, Deputy Commissioner of Probation. There is prob- 
ably some small duplication of cases in the "total" column but not enough to change the 
comparison materially. 

Boston Family Welfare Society. The carefully kept records of the Boston 
Family Welfare Society (formerly the Associated Charities') reveal some impre«- 



OF MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC RECORDS 25 

sive facts (Table 16). The factors in family problems are studied and recorded 
in each case. The percentage of cases in which intemperance was a factor fell off 
about nine-tenths between 1917 and the two prohibition years 1920 and 1921. 
In 1917 intemperance appeared as a factor in about one family in every four (27 
per cent.) ; in 1921-1922 in about one family in every twenty-five (4.1 per cent.). 
The Family Welfare Society cared for 4,154 families in the year ending 
April 30, 1922, which included an entire year of serious unemployment and a 
winter when continued business depression had made more demands than for 
several years (see p. 44). But in the previous year of unemployment, 1915, the 
Society cared for 4,847 families. 

TABLE 16. Boston Family Welfare Society (Formerly Associated Charities) 
Prevalence of Intemperance in Cases Helped 

i Year Ending Sept. 30 \ r-EndingApr.30-^ 

1917 1918 1919 1920 *1921 1922 

Families under care 3,589 3,124 3,264 2,969 3,057 4,154 

Intemperance a factor 984 627 347 71 73 174 

Percentage of intemperance... 27 20 10.6 2.5 2.5 4.1 

In six of the fourteen districts of the Society, there were no cases in January, 
1922, in which intemperance was a factor. The intemperance cases were chiefly 
in sections where saloons or breweries had formerly been numerous. The staff 
of the Society, in discussing the question, agreed that many instances were cited 
in which family life was infinitely improved since prohibition; that in most cases 
where men continued to drink they had become addicted in the old license days. 
This means that fewer young men are taking to drink, partly perhaps because of 
the nature of drink sold illegally which does not appeal to their liking. It was 
agreed that some bootlegging was apparently taking place, carried on in part by 
men who would not engage in it if they had steady work [this perhaps explains 
the rising percentage of cases in the winter of 1922 in which intemperance was a 
factor] ; the period of unemployment was also considered partly responsible for any 
increase in intemperance, but that intemperance was more a problem in well-to-do 
groups since only the more prosperous could afford 'to pay the price for drink of 
even reasonably pure quality. 23 

F. C. Moore of the Morgan Memorial Bureau, reported, March 24, 1922 : 

"In 1917 and previous years before prohibition was put into effect, about 25 per cent, 
of families helped through our Welfare and Employment Bureau were those whose cir- 
cumstances had been brought about by the indulgence of liquor. 

"During the past six months only 2 per cent, of those who were helped in any way 
by our Institution had to be helped because of drink. 

"There is also a great change brought about in connection with the men who apply 
to us for clothing. Previous to prohibition, the average number of men applying to us 
Monday mornings for clothing, shoes, etc., was ten. They were in this condition be- 
cause they had pawned everj'thing they had and were just getting over a debauch and 
desired to be given a chance to get back their clothing, etc., so they could go to work. 



*Seven months ending April 30. 

a From statement of Stockton Raymond, secretary, prepared for John F. Moors, 
president, in preparation for hearing by Com. on Legal Affairs concerning the Massa- 
chusetts Prohibition Enforcement Bill. Feb. 16, 1922. 



26 WET AND DRY YEARS IN A DECADE 

"During the past six months we have not averaged more than two persons who have 
come to us on Monday mornings in this condition."* 

PROHIBITION AND HEALTH 

What of health conditions under prohibition as shown by mortality? 

Boston Alcoholism Mortality. To begin with the cases of death most closely 
related to the use of alcoholic beverages, there were but 70 deaths from alcoholism 
in Boston in 1921. The average of the two dry years was 50; of six wet years 
(1913-1918), 134 (Footnote 24 Table 17). The 1921 death loss from alcoholism 
was higher tnan that of 1920 due to conditions already noted as responsible for 
an increase of arrests for drunkenness in Boston, but still far lower than in any 
entire license year. 

Deaths of women from alcoholism indicate even more clearly the possibilities 
in checking this cause of death. While the total number of deaths from alco- 
holism dropped 62 per cent, in the two dry years, among women it dropped 80 
per cent. 

Dr. William C. Woodward, until recently (Feb., 1922) Health Commissioner 
of Boston, thought that the most significant light on the effects of prohibition on 
health could be obtained by grouping certain causes known to be affected by 
alcohol, as deaths from alcoholism, accidents, non-accidental homicides, and sui- 
cides. Table 17 brings the Boston figures for these groups together. It shows 
a decrease of 33 per cent, in the total deaths from these four causes in the prohibi- 
tion years as compared with the average license year, a gain of 345 lives. 

TABLE 17. Deaths from Alcoholism and Certain Related Causes in Boston 

Non- Total 

Year Ending <— Alcoholism — > Acci- Accidental Four Causes 

Dec. 31 — Total Women dents Homicide Suicide Causes 

1912 24 229 70 901 " 31 113 1,274 

1913 160 43 734 36 104 1,034 

1914 109 24 745 27 132 1,013 

1915 109 27 680 37 140 966 

1916 ...161 37 790 30 123 1,104 

1917 ....166 44 759 27 135 1,087 

1918 103 22 772 30 122 1,027 

1919 53 7 634 42 105 834 

1920 31 3 510 38 100 679 

1921 70 10 507 30 102 709 

Average 6 wet years 1913-1918. 134 33 746 31 126 1,038 

Average 2 dry years 1920-1921. 50 6 508 34 101 693 

Decrease 62% 80% 32% 9% Inc. 25 19% 33% 

(Annual statistics from Reports of Division of Vital Statistics, Boston Health Dept.) 

M There is clearly a discrepancy between the total deaths from alcoholism reported by 
the city and by the state for this year. As it has been impossible to discover which figure 
is incorrect, they are included in the tables as printed in the official reports and 1912 is 
omitted from the comparison tables. 

^Note that in 1921 deaths from homicide were fewer than in 1920 and also fewer than 
the average for the wet years. 

The two largest causes of death by accident in Boston are falls and motor 
vehicles. In 1921 they were responsible for 44 of each 100 deaths by accident. 



*From The Good Samaritan, official bulletin of Morgan Memorial, Apr.. 1022. 



OF MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC RECORDS 27 

Deaths from falls have decreased in 1921 even when compared with the pre- 
vious year of industrial depression, 1 1915, but as there have been in the meantime 
many new regulations governing industrial safety, it is impossible to estimate 
whether increasing sobriety has had any influence in decreasing mortality from 
falls. 

The number of deaths clue to motor vehicles has naturally largely increased 
within ten years because of the growing use of automobiles. But these vehicles 
caused but 90 deaths in Boston in 1920 and 104 in 1921 as compared with 114 in 
1918 and 129 in 1919. In the state of Massachusetts, the number of persons killed 
or injured by motor vehicles in 1921 in proportion to the number of registered 
automobiles and motor cycles was the smallest of the decade. The report of a 
special State Commission* says that this decrease had probably been "due in part 
to better police protection and in no small measure to the activity of the registrar 
of motor vehicles with regard to the suspension and revocation of licenses and 
rights." 

Massachusetts Motor Vehicle Accidents and Fatalities 

Persons killed Persons injured 

per 1,000 motor per 100,000 motor 

Year vehicles registered vehicles registered 

1912 2.57 3.55 

1913 2.69 4.18 

1914 2.68 4.69 

1915 2.62 5.52 

1916 2.14 6.19 

1917 2.36 3.92 

1918 2.42 4.16 

1919 2.23 6.24 

1920 1.50 6.62 

1921 1.43 3.08 

These facts are included here because of the impression which has gone 
abroad that the automobile accident situation has been more serious in Massa- 
chusetts under prohibition. That impression is probably due to failure to compare 
the casualties and deaths with the mounting number of motor vehicles. Among 
the cases serious enough for offenders to be penalized by revocation or suspension 
of licenses or rights, the proportion in which liquor was a factor was the same in 
1920 and 1921, and there are no comparable figures for preceding years. 

The latest figures available from the Mass. Dept. of Public Works are for the month 
of May: 

Suspensions and Revocations 

Total Due to liquor Pet. due to liq'r 

May, 1921 266 101 38% 

May, 1922 675 210 31% 

Suicides in Boston in 1920 and 1921 were fewest of the decade, less by thirty 
or more than in the previous unemployment period, 1914-15. 
ALCOHOLISM IN THE HOSPITALS 

The Massachusetts General Hospital reported in 1920 it received only about 
"three or four cases a month now" diagnosed as alcoholic. The resident physician 

*Mass Senate Document No. 285. Report of the Commission appointed relative to 
the expediency of requiring the owners of motor vehicles to carry liability insurance. 



28 WET AND DRY YEARS IN A DECADE 

stated, Apr. 29, 1922, that this situation remained practically unchanged, two or 
three cases a month representing the facts as nearly as could be determined. 
Emergency alcoholic cases are not sent to this hospital to any great extent, so 
that present conditions do not represent any change from pre-prohibition con- 
ditions. 

The Boston Dispensary which in 1920 reported only two patients under the 
influence of liquor in six months had nothing to add to these figures in 1921. 

Both the City Hospital and the Washingtonian Home for Inebriates had a 
larger number of alcoholic admissions in 1921 than in 1919 or 1920. This in- 
crease, as in other institutions, evidently reflects the operations of an organized 
illicit traffic and imperfect law enforcement. 

TABLE 18. Deaths from Alcoholism and Certain Related Causes in 
the State of Massachusetts 
Non- 
Alcoholism Accidental 

Year Ending Dec. 30 — Total Homicides Suicide Total 

1912 28 197 92 478 767 

1913 336 111 486 933 

1914 299 106 495 900 

1915 186 113 515 814 

1916 212 115 455 782 

1917 210 106 493 809 

1918 Ill 93 492 696 

1919 68 102 445 615 

1920 59 78 391 528 

1921 97f 109t 473f 689t 

Average 6 wet years 1913-1918. 225 107 489 822 

Average 2 dry years 1920-1921 . 78 93 432 608 

Decrease 65% 13% 11% 26% 

(Annual Statistics from Reports of Vital Statistics of Massachusetts) 
Boston City Hospital. In the City Hospital cases, the increased number may 
also be due to the fact that the alcoholic patients are clearly "sick" from their 
liquor, more so than formerly, indicating that the liquors now sold illegally pro- 
duce more acute effects. The City Hospital patients are practically all brought in 
by the police. The drinkers found unconscious or obviously sick from drink are, 
therefore, taken by the police to the hospital before they are to the police station. 
There were only 23 cases of delirium tremens among the City Hospital 
admissions in 1921, the smallest number of six years (1916-1921) comprising the 
comparable period of these hospital statistics (Table 19c). The special delirium 
tremens ward equipped for this class of cases just before prohibition came has 
been abandoned for that purpose. The decrease is explained as due to the fact 
that delirium tremens when it occurs ordinarily follows protracted drinking. The 
present drinkers taken to the hospital can neither obtain enough liquor or stand 
enough of the kind now sold to reach the delirium tremens stage. 

Saturday is no longer the week's busy night, says Dr. E. W. Wilson, Assistant 
Superintendent. The Saturday night congregations in the open saloons used to 
bring the ambulances rolling to the hospital with special frequency. Now that 

M See Note 24 , Table 13. 



OF MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC RECORDS 29 

liquor is hard to get. the drinker who wants it takes it when he can get it, and the 
hospital alcoholic cases are more evenly distributed through the week. 

The men brought in are mostly "repeaters ;" in age, "youngish," on the 
average from about 26 to 37 years old. A few appear to be new drinkers, but 
the cases are largely drinkers who acquired the drink habit in the old saloon days. 
For the most part they are of the "floater" type, who spend their time on park 
benches and street corners. This confirms statements made elsewhere that the 
family man has largely dropped out from the drinkers' ranks. 

The woman drunkard has mostly disappeared from the City Hospital cases. 
She used to be sent in from the cheaper hotels and dance halls. 

Washingtonian Home. Admissions to the Washingtonian Home increased in 
both 1920 and 1921 over 1919. But even in 1921 the number is nearly a third 
lower than the average of the seven license years (Table 19). The average for 
the two dry years is 42 per cent lower than the average for the seven wet years. 

Admissions in 1919 (six months prohibition) were the fewest since 1902; the 
number in 1920 (prohibition) was the lowest since 1899; the 694 admissions in 
1921 were the fewest (except for 1919 and 1920) since 1905. 

TABLE 19. Alcoholic Admissions 28 

(c) 

(a) (b) Boston City Hospital 

Washington']! Foxboro & Norfolk r-Yr. End'g Dec. 3I~> 

Home Yr. End'g Nov. 30 Alco- Delirium 

Yr. End'g Dec. 31 Total holism Tremens 

1912 946 955 417 10 

1913 939 1,226 380 21 

1914 998 557 (6 mos.) 499 12 

1915 953 1,228 479 7 

1916 1,061 1,080 1,032 s1 173 

1917 1,053 1,021 1,153 177 

1918 736 543 540 70 

1919 565™ 516 30 564 71 

1920 410 29 552 40 

1921 694 1,272 23 

Average 7 wet years 1912-1919. . . 955 " — " 

Average 2 dry years 1920-1921. . . 552 

Decrease 42.2% 

(Annual Statistics from Report of Superintendent of Washington Home for 1921 ; 
Annual Reports of Superintendent of Foxborough and Norfolk) 

The full significance of present cases of admissions to the Washingtonian 
Home under prohibition is emphasized by the fact that there is now no separate 
State Hospital for inebriates. All through the "wet" period covered by the table 
of admissions to the Washingtonian Home, when the Home was receiving an 

^The figures of the Washingtonian Home and Foxborough-Norfolk Institution in- 
clude both alcoholic and drug patients as the Washingtonian statistics do not give these 
separately. About one-fourth of the Norfolk patients (1915-1918) were drug inebriates. 

'"Exclusive of Norfolk patients cared for: 87 in 1918 and 420 in 1919. 

30 Beginning Oct., 1918, cared for in other institutions, largely the Washingtonian 
Home. Discontinued as an institution for inebriates. 

81 At the City Hospital beginning with 1916 a change was made in handling the alco- 
holic cases. The statistics 1916-1921 represent a uniform method of entering cases. As 
they are not comparable during the seven wet years no averages are shown here. 



30 WET AND DRY YEARS IN A DECADE 

annual average of 955 patients, a state institution at Foxborough whose patients 
were transferred June 1, 1914, to the new Norfolk State Hospital was receiving 
approximately the same average number as also shown in Table 20. The Norfolk 
Hospital was taken over for Federal purposes in October, 1918, and its patients 
cared for by the Washingtonian Home and the Massachusetts Home and Hospital 
during the remainder of 1918 and 1919. 

There is now no separate state institution for the treatment of inebriates, so 
that the Washingtonian Home now draws not only from the patients that formerly 
came to it but also from those who formerly would have gone to the State Hospital. 
The 1921 report of the Chicago Washingtonian Home (p. 9) calls attention to the 
probability that there may be an increase in admissions to that institution in the 
future "because so many of the institutions for the cure of inebriety have closed 
their doors within a year or two." Very likely admissions to the Boston Wash- 
ingtonian Home may continue to increase and even to reach pre-prohibition levels 
while former drinkers live and continue to drink. Formerly in Massachusetts 
there were, for the treatment of alcoholic inebriates, not only the State Hospital 
admitting as many as the Washingtonian Home, but also twelve smaller private 
institutions. Today these are all closed except the Washingtonian Home and 
three of the small institutions. 

CONTRIBUTORY HEALTH EVIDENCE 

There are certain diseases whose mortality is known to be excessive in 
habitual drinkers, as cirrhosis of the liver, tuberculosis and pneumonia. The 
death-rates of these also show a suggestive downward curve accompanying war 
restrictions and prohibition of the liquor traffic, although allowance must always 
be made for the effect of general health campaigns. These diseases are cited here 
as collateral evidence rather than as direct proof of prohibition's benefits. 

TABLE 20. Mortality from Cirrhosis of the Liver 

Cirrhosis of the Liver 
Year Ending Dec. 31— Boston Mass. 

1912 77 283 

1913 69 335 

1914 70 244 

1915 94 302 

1916 107 360 

1917 91 325 

1918 67* 256* 

1919 44 181 

1920 .38 196 

1921 55 160f 

Av. 6 wet years 1912-17 84 308 

Av. 2 dry years 1920-21 46 178 

Decrease 45% 42% 

(Annual statistics Reports Boston Dept. of Health and Mass Vital Statistics.) 
Cirrhosis of the liver, so frequently found in alcoholics that its prevalence is 
usually considered one indication of the prevalence of intemperance, began to drop 
during the war restrictions on alcoholic liquors (Table 20). In Boston, the average 

*Influenza year. Statistics omitted from comparison. 



OF MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC RECORDS 31 

number of deaths from this disease fell off 45 per cent in the prohibition years as 
compared with the wet years; in Massachusetts the decrease was 42 per cent. — 
from an average total of 308 deaths in the wet years to 178 in the prohibition years. 

Tuberculosis has shown a marked drop (Table 21). Persistent educational 
and other preventive work and improved methods of treatment were slowly pulling 
down the tuberculosis mortality per 100,000 population in Boston. Yet in 1916 
and 1917 this rate was higher than in the three preceding years. In 1912-17 tuber- 
culosis carried off annually on the average 173 people from each 100,000 popula- 
tion. In 1920 and 1921 the average rate was only 121. 

All during the six wet years tuberculosis caused never less than 10.1 deaths 
out of each 100 deaths in the city; the average was 10.3 (Table 21c). In 1920 
and 1921 it caused but 8.3 of each 100 deaths. 

TABLE 21. Tuberculosis Mortality 

i Boston \ 

c ^-Massachusetts - \ 

a b Pctg. of e 

Total Rate per Deaths d Rate per 

Year Ending Deaths 100,000 from All Total 100,000 

Dec. 31 — All Forms Pop. Causes Deaths Pop. 

1912 1,272 178.6 10.9 5,067 144.3 

1913 1,260 174.0 10.6 5,049 141.1 

1914 1,264 171.7 10.6 5,061 138.9 

1915 1,222 163.3 10.1 5,047 136.7 

1916 1,318 176.6 10.3 5,422 143.6 

1917 1,312 175.7 10.3 5,409 140.9 

1918 1,367* 182.9* 7.8* 5,969* 152.8* 

1919 1,147 153.4 9.8 4,920 128.2 

1920 956 127.2 8.2 4,400 114.1 

1921 877 115.0 8.5 3,864f 99. 4 1 

Av. 6 wet years 1912-1917.. 1,274 173.3 10.4 5,175 140.9 

Av. 2 dry years 1920-1921 . . 916 121.1 8.3 4,132 106.7 

Decrease 28% 20% 

(Statistics of total deaths and population rates from Annual Reports Statistician Boston 
Health Dept. and Mass. Registrar of Vital statistics, Columns a, b, d, e). 

Pneumonia, another disease of excessive mortality in drinkers, also shows a 
marked drop in 1920 and 21 from the wet period. The mortality rate has shown 
a fluctuating tendency, yet is so much lower in 1920 and 1921 that the facts as they 
stand at present are included here for completeness of record. 

Whatever the reason, the fact is that in Boston the average death-rate from 
pneumonia in 1920 and 1921 (148.5) has dropped 26 per cent below the average of 
the six wet years (200.4), which was also the death-rate in the year 1913. The City 
Health Report for 1913 said of this rate (p. 72) that the pneumonia mortality had 
then remained practically stable at this point for the preceding ten years. For 
some reason pneumonia in 1920 and 1921 (as well as in 1919) broke beyond all 
precedent of nearly twenty years the average death rate from this disease. Lobar 
pneumonia, which has a larger proportion of adult cases showed an even more 
marked drop in its mortality rates. 

1 Death rate for Massachusetts, 1921, estimated on basis of 3,885,836 population. 
*Influenza year. Statistics omitted from comparisons. 



32 WET AND DRY YEARS IN A DECADE 

TABLE 22. Boston Pneumonia Mortality 

i All Forms -> '—Lobar Pneumoniae 

Total Death 

Rate per Rate per 

100,000 100,000 

Year Total Pop. Total Pop. 

1912 1,405 197.2 Av. 1906-1910 952 s2 147. 9 82 

1913. 1,452 200.4 Av. 1911-1915 934 s2 129. 4 32 

1914 1,385 188.1 

1915' 1,456 194.5 

1916 1,631 214.5 1,012 135.6 

1917 1,605 207.7 1,098 147.0 

1918 2,376* 302.9* 1,539* 205.9* 

1919 965 129.0 595 79.5 

1920 1,361 181 .0 672 89. 4. 

1921 883 116.0 457 60.0 

(Statistics 1912-19 from Report Boston Health Dept. 1919, 1920, and for 1921 from 
Monthly Bulletin of Health Dept., Dec, 1921.) 

In the State of Massachusetts, pneumonia mortality shows a similar down- 
ward trend, whatever be its explanation. 

TABLE 23. Massachusetts Pneumonia Mortality 

i Lobar Pneumonia < 

Death Rate Rate per 

Total per 100,000 100,000 . 

Year Deaths Populat'n Total Pop. 

1912 5,965 169.8 1 3,874 110. 3 M 

1913 6,112 170.8 3,315 92.7 

1914 5,987 164.3 3,393 93.1 

1915 6,448 174.6 3,736 101.2 

1916 6,567 173.9 4,013 106.3 

1917 6,293 163.8 4,028 104.9 

1918 14,626* 374.3* 10,339* 264.6* 

1919 5,279 137.7 2,614 68.2 

1920 6,347 164.8 2,842 73.8 

1921 4,060f 104.5 33 l,822f 46.8" 

(Statistics from annual reports of Mass. Registrar of Vital Statistics 
unless otherwise indicated.) 

General Mortality. Boston and Massachusetts have shared in the general 
marked decline in mortality, beginning with 1919, which has prevailed throughout 
the United States. In both city and state in 1921 the total deaths were the lowest 
of the decade, and the death-rates were the lowest recorded. There were sixty- 
six hundred (6,672) fewer deaths in Massachusetts in 1921 than in the average 
wet year. (Table 24.) 

The total mortality in Boston fell even more than that of the state. The 
change in the date-rate was about the same. (Table 25). 

"What such figures mean in lives saved or at least in deaths postponed," says 
the Boston Monthly Bulletin of the Department (Dec, 1921), "can best be seen 
by considering the number of deaths that have occurred in 1921 had the death-rate 

"Average of five years. 

*Influenza year. Omitted from comparison. 
34 Estimated on population 3,511,510. 
"Estimated on population 3,885,836. 



OF MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC RECORDS 



33 



TABLE 24. General Mortality in Massachusetts 

Death Rate per 

Year Total Deaths 1,000 Pop. 

1912 52,400 14.92* 

1913 53,402 14.90 

1914 52,978 14.53 

1915 53,131 14.38 

1916 56,366 14.92 

1917 56,628 14.74 

1918 78,842 20.2 

1919 52,345 13.64 

1920 53,632 13.92 

1921 47,780 12. 3 1 

Average 6 wet years 1912-1917 54,150 14.73 

Average 2 dry years 1920-21 50,706 13. 11 

Decrease 6% 

(Statistics from Annual Reports on Vital Statistics of Mass.) 

TABLE 25. Boston. General Mortality and Infant Mortality 



Year Ending All 

Dec. 31 — Causes 

1912 11,643 

1913 11,839 

1914 11,831 

1915 12,021 

1916 12,760 

1917 12,728 

1918 17,447 

1919 11,689 

1920 11,601 

1921 10,217 

Average 6 wet years 1912-17. . 12,137 

Average 2 dry years 1920-21 . . 10,909 

Decrease 10% 

continued as high as during stated earlier periods. . . . Had the death-rate been 
as high as in 1911. 12,941 would have occurred," i. c, 2,724 more than actually 
occurred in 1921. 

Even when 1920 and 1921 are compared there were 1,483 fewer deaths in 1921 
than there would have been had the 1920 death-rate continued. "The most striking 
feature of the mortality tables," continues the Bulletin, "is the diminished death- 
rate of children under five years," a saving of 696 lives as compared with 1920. 
The infant mortality rate (77.22 deaths under one year per 1,000 live births) was 
the lowest on record. (Table 25.) 

It may be of some significance to general health and to child health that the 

*The lowest recorded rate to this time. 

Estimated on basis of 3,885,836 population. (Table 24). 

'Report City Health Department, 1915. 

"Report City Health Department, 1913. 

3 Report City Health Department, 1918. 

4 Report City Health Department, 1919. 

"Report City Health Department, 1921. Monthly Bulletin, Dec, 1921. 



1 All Causes— n 
Death Rate 
per 1,000 
Population 


Deaths of Infants Under One 


Total 


01 /\ge ■> 

Rate pr. 1,000 

Registered 

Live Births 


16.17 2 


2,186 


115.74 2 


16.34 3 


2,111 


109. 79 2 


16. 06 1 


2,007 


103.12 1 


16. 06 1 


2,045 


103. 68 1 


16. 78 3 


2,055 


104. 88 3 


16. 48 3 


1,965 


98. 96 3 


22. 24 3 


2,298 


114.54 3 


15. 63 4 


1,818 


96. 80 4 


15.44 s 


1,966 


100.85° 


13. 48 5 


1,495 


77.22° 


16.31 


2,061 


106.02 


14.46 


1,730 
16% 


89.03 



34 WET AND DRY YEARS IN A DECADE 

daily milk consumption in Boston in 1921 was the highest of the decade in spite 
of business depression and "hard times" and the continued high price of milk at 
about 16 cents a quart. The relation of increased use of milk to better health is 
suggested by the report of the Massachusetts Special Commission on Necessaries 
of Life (Jan., 1922), which pointed out (p. 56) that greater milk consumption 
contributes to greater physical vigor and improves resistance to disease. 
TABLE 26. Daily Consumption of Milk in Boston 

1912 271,403 quarts 1917 342,244 quarts 

1913 302,886 " 1918 342,451 

1914 '. 308,880 " 1919 333,506 

1915 333,650 " 1920 358,853 

1916 347,735 " 1921 382,568 " 

(Statistics from Annual Reports of Milk Inspector Boston Health Dept.) 
The retail price of milk in Boston had advanced from 9 cents in 1913 to 15-17 
cents in 1921. 34 Figures for the state indicate that the price did not begin to rise 
until 1916. Yet with milk costing in 1921 six or seven cents a quart more than in 
1915, the per capita consumption was enough larger in 1921 than in 1915 to repre- 
sent a gain of about 8 quarts a month for each family of four persons, enough to 
add a glass of milk a day to the diet of a child or other person. The increased 
use of milk in 1921, despite the price far higher than in 1915, suggests, at least, 
that in this prohibition year of unemployment, the homes of Boston had money 
with which to respond measurably to the campaign teaching the importance of 
using more milk. 

Whatever may have been the cause of the remarkable drop in death-rates 
beginning in the year 1919, half of which was in the prohibition regime, the con- 
tinued decline and record low rates suggest that some factor other than ordinary 
health prevention activities was at work. The influenza epidemic of 1918 may 
have had some effect upon the rates of succeeding years. The epidemic continued 
into 1919, yet that year shows a decline in death-rate. If feeble lives which would 
naturally have ended later were cut off by influenza, some offsetting increase of 
mortality might have been expected on the part of those who survived but weak- 
ened by the disease. But the death-rate declined. 

The lower mortality of 1919 and 1920 has been attributed to the high wages 
affording better living conditions ; but 1921 was a period of serious unemploy- 
ment, yet death-rates continued to fall. Further, even during the period of 
employment and high wages of 1919 and early 1920, there were as an offset to 
high wages, the crowded living conditions in the cities which would be expected 
to push up death-rates in such diseases as tuberculosis. On the contrary these 
rates fell. 

Without attempting the impossible — the determination of the extent to which 
prohibition has contributed to better health and lower mortality, it is fair that it 
should be given due credit as a factor. Money saved from the saloon has been 
available for better homes, food, clothing, more recreation, more attention to 
dental and medical care. These are matters of repeated observation by physicians. 

"Report Special Commission on Necessaries of Life. Mass. House Document. Num- 
ber 1400 (1922) pp. 56, 119. 



OF .MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC RECORDS 35 

teachers, ministers and social workers. In these ways alone, aside from any gain 
to health in stopping or decreasing the alcoholic consumption of thousands of 
people, the physical and economic features of prohibition can hardly have failed 
to have some result in improving health and prolonging life. 

ALCOHOLIC INSANITY DECREASES 

One of the hoped-for results from prohibition was a decline in that part of 
insanity traceable to alcohol. This decline is already occurring in Massachusetts 
public hospitals for the insane. 

The total number of first admissions to state hospitals for the insane and 
McLean Hospital in 1921 was 3,105. This was a smaller number than that of 
five of the seven wet years (Table 28). The rate of admissions of insane per 
hundred population of the state fell from 85.2 in 1915 to 79.9 in 1921. 35 

In 1920 there were 102 first admissions of cases of alcoholic insanity ("alco- 
holic psychoses") ; in 1921, there were 151. But in the seven wet years the 
average number was 340. The rate of alcoholic admissions per 100,000 population 
in 1915 was 8; in 1921, it was 3.8. 

It may be asked whether the decrease in admissions of alcoholic psychoses is 
not due to a change in diagnosis. Apparently not. as the proportion of first admis- 
sions known to be of intemperate habits has shown a similar decline. 

TABLE 27. First Admissions to Massachusetts Public Institutions 
for Insane and McLean Hospital 

^—Alcoholic Psychoses-^ Intemperance 

Year Ending Total First Pet. of All One Cause of 

Sept. 30 — Admissions Total Admissions of Insanity 

1912 2,660 301 11.32 17.40 

1913 3,108 367 11.81 18.46 

1914 2,986 311 10.42 18.99 

1915 3,147 299 9.50 17.06 

1916 3,185 lw 289 9.08 16. 48 30 

Alcoholic 

Habits 

Intemperate 

1917 4,159 511 12.29 27.67 

1918 3,766 304 8.07 20.82 

1919 ..; 3,816 296 7.76 18.06 

1920 2,819 102 3.62 10.57 

1921 3,105f lSlf 4.86f 12.14f 

Average 7 wet years 1912-18... 3,287 340 10.35 

Average 2 dry years 1920-21... 2,962 126 4.24 

Decrease 10% 62% 

(Annual statistics from Reports State Board of Insanity.) 

35 Based on population figures of 3,693.310 for 1915 and 3,885,836 for 1921. 

36 Robert Kelso, then secretary of the State Board of Charities, in 1918 called attention 
to the fact that in 1916 intemperance was one cause of insanity in 16.48 per cent of all 
first admissions and at this figure had cost the state in one year $566,599.80 for main- 
tenance alone. The cost of alcoholic insanity was probably even greater than this be- 
cause, as the official statistics show, for a decade before 1916 the percentages of 
admissions in which intemperance was a factor were even higher. The cases of chronic 
often incurable alcoholic psychoses had been almost 50 per cent higher in 1906. 



36 WET AND DRY YEARS IN A DECADE 

The similarity of these statistics to those of New York compiled by its 
state statistican * is striking evidence of the gain for mental soundness that may 
reasonably be expected from well enforced and well observed prohibition. 

VENEREAL DISEASE 
New cases of venereal disease appear to be decreasing in Massachusetts. This 
class of diseases became reportable in Massachusetts in February, 1918. The 
number of physicians reporting is said to be increasing so that an increase in the 
number of cases might naturally be expected. Instead, there has been a steady 
decrease (Table 28). The cases reported are the infectious cases, therefore, are 
mostly in the early stages. It is said by state officials that physicians report seeing 
a smaller number of primary cases. 

TABLE 28. Venereal Diseases Reported in Massachusetts 

Total Monthly 

Year Ending Dec. 31 — Cases Average 

1918 10,965 (11 mos.) 996 

1919 13,562 1,130 

1920 10,211 851 

1921 8,060t 672 

1922. 3 mos. ending Mar. 31 l,668f (3 mos.) 556 

(Mass. State Board of Health. Division of Communicable Diseases.) 

Allowance must be made in the decrease for the influence of instruction and 
agitation against these diseases and for their early treatment. The prohibition 
factor can not be estimated, but there is a feeling among officials acquainted with 
the situation that prohibition can not have failed to exert some influence by re- 
ducing the factor of alcohol which impairs self-restraint. The decrease in Boston 
of arrests for offenses against chastity ( Table 4.e) tends to strengthen this con- 
clusion that with the drink factor reduced, natural decency and sense of propriety 
prevent some of the situations responsible for this class of disease. 

ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 

The decade ending with two and one-half years of prohibition includes the 
war period with all the attendant economic changes. Severe depression in employ- 
ment for lack of work in the latter part of 1914, which reached its maximum in 
Boston in March. 191 5," was succeeded by five years of demand for labor at an 
increasing wage scale which brought prosperity to the industrial groups that form 
so large a part of the population of Massachusetts. Industrial prosperity was prac- 
tically at its height when prohibition became effective, July 1, 1919. Hence the 
effect of prohibition on savings accounts and public relief of poverty is doubly 
difficult to determine. The present paper makes no attempt to determine it, but 
simply presents facts as revealed by public records. 

The last six months of 1920 and the year 1921 were a period of unemploy- 
ment which was at its worst in Massachusetts from December, 1920, to the end of 
March, 1921. The estimated percentage of unemployed in the winter 1920-21 was 

♦Horatio M. Pollock, M. D. : Decline of Alcohol and Drugs as Causes of Mental Disease; 
and personal communications 1921. 

"Report Boston Overseers of the Poor for year ending Jan. 31, 1916. P. 3. 



OF MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC RECORDS 



37 



nearly double that of the winter 1914-15. 38 The cost of living in Massachusetts 
in March, 1921, was represented by an "index number" of 166.4 as compared with 
101 in the same month of 191 5. 39 

Massachusetts Savings Banks. Despite lavish spending on the part of many 
during the prosperous period, thrift or prohibition, probably both, swelled savings 
in savings banks, cooperative banks and school savings banks in Massachusetts. 
During 1918 and 1919, millions of dollars went into the various War Loans. Not- 
withstanding unemployment and the high cost of living, the State Bank Commis- 
sioner was able to report October 31, 1921, that in the year ending on that date, 
although the number of deposit accounts decreased in the 196 savings banks of the 
stated the total deposits had increased during the year by $30,724,172.67, a gain 
over the preceding year of 2.5 per cent. The average of each deposit increased 
from $465.26 to $478. (Table 29.) 

During the seven wet years, 1912-1918, the average annual gain in in- 
dividual deposits was 1.46 per cent; in the two prohibition years, one of 
them a hard times year, the average annual gain was 4.2 per cent. 







TABLE 29. Savings Accounts in 


Massachusetts 












Pr. Cent 


Year 


Savings Banks 




Cooperative Banks Increase 


Ending 






Number 


Over 


Oct. 


Number 


Total 


Av. No. 


Mem- 


Previous 


31— 


Accounts 


Deposits 


Acct. Banks 


bers 


Assets Year* 


1912 


2,200,917 


$ 838,635,098' 


$381.04 162 


172,692 


$ 74,484,048' 9.6 


1913 


2,266,261 


869,919,019 


383.86 169 


188,741 


81,708,343 9.6 


1914 


2,309,008 


899,279,596 


389.46 174 


204,249 


90,781,470 11.1 


1915 


2,349,207 


928,830,655 


395.38 179 


217,427 


101,547,317 11.8 


1916 


2,457,269 


997,694,818 


406.02 183 


236,760 


113,305,907 11.5 


1917 


2,491,646 


1,022,342,583 


410.31 184 


247,725 


126,695,036 11.8 


1918 


2,486,834 


1,033,892,914 


415.75 186 


247,224 


140,201,033 10.6 


1919 


2,532,036 


1,114,313,692 


440.09 190 


261,979 


154,879,638 10.4 


1920 


2,593,287 


1,206,546,998 


465.26 202 


296,197 


175,979,204 12.3 


1921 


2,588,448 


1,237,271,170 


478.00 206 


308,790 


198,195,048 12.7 






School Savings Baj. 


rKs 










Amount at 




Transfer — 


Year Ending 


Number 


Credit of 


Average To Savings 


Oct. 31— 


Depositors 


Depositors 


Account* Banks Pass Books 




1912 


45,744 


$ 38.820 1 


.85 


$ 69,1 19 1 




1913 


60,596 


56,839 


.93 


133,819 




1914 


67,520 


64,295 


.95 


121,685 




1915 


68,780 


70,755 


1.02 


122,689 




1916 


70,968 


86,906 


1.22 


169,784 




1917 


70,902 


105,436 


1.48 


194,041 




1918 


50,204 


59,298 


1.18 


129,686 




1919 


44,740 


78,240 


1.74 


64,576 




1920 


61,224 


117,547 


1.92 


206,770 




1921 


72,561f 


129,489f 


1.78 


243,127t 






(Annual Reports of State Bank Commissioner.) 



38 Mass. Industrial Review. Nov., 1916. P. 31. Estimated from reports from over 
1100 labor unions with membership of 242,898. 

89 Rept. Mass. Special Commission on Necessaries of Life. Jan., 1922. P. 106. 
$A decrease of 4,839 accounts out of 2,593,287, less than one-fifth of one per cent. 
1 Cents omitted. 
*Estimated from table. 



38 WET AND DRY YEARS IN A DECADE 

The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in a report issued Feb., 1920, shows that 
while the withdrawals from savings accounts in New England banks were heavy 
in 1921 owing to business depression, nevertheless, sufficient savings and interest 
upon them were left so that total savings throughout New England "grew some 
2 per cent, in 1921, a remarkably good performance in view of the depressed 
industrial conditions." 40 

Many picturesque instances are related of former drinkers who, finding them- 
selves with more money than they ever before possessed at one time did not know 
what to do with it and were introduced by friends for the first time to the savings 
bank. 

The cooperative banks during the license years pushed up their assets annually 
on the average about 11 per cent. They surpassed this rate of gain for the first 
time in 1920, "the largest gain in any one year,'' comments the 1920 annual report 
of the State Bank Commissioner, and in 1921 made a still larger gain, despite 
unemployment and inevitably heavy withdrawals in many instances. The assets 
in 1921 were the largest in the history of these institutions (which began in 1877 k 
according to the advance report of the Bank Commissioner. 

As to the credit unions, the bank commissioner says of 1921 : "In spite of the 
fact that there were heavy withdrawals notably in industrial centres, these insti- 
tutions have emerged from the situation materially increased in number, strength 
and resources and more substantially established in the Commonwealth than at 
any time since the creation of the Credit Union System." 

The foreign banks which serve many foreign-born who want to arrange for 
steamship transportation or to send money to their native lands, forwarded to 
foreign countries from Massachusetts in the year ending Sept. 30, 1921. over $15.- 
000,000. In 1919, they had sent over $17,000,000; in 1920. nearly $24,000,000. 
The largest amount sent previous to 1919 was $10,000,000. These sums were in 
addition, said the State Bank Commissioner (Rept. 1919), to many millions in- 
vested in war government bonds of native lands. 

The prosperity and high wages of the late war period, poverty in Europe, 
resumption of immigration, help explain the large forwardings in 1919 and 1920. 
yet in 1921 when depression had existed in an industrial state for a year, funds 
sent abroad by sons of other countries were still fifty per cent, larger than the 
largest sum previous to 1919. 

The school savings banks register the possibilities of thrift in the coming 
citizens of the state. 

The number of youthful depositors (72.561) and the amount to their credit 
in 1921 ($129,489), though the largest of the decade, seem to register a normal 
development, about what would be expected from the general trend of preceding 
years. The same is true of the amount transferred to savings bank pass-books. But 
when the two unemployment years, 1915 and 1921, are compared, there is indica- 
tion of more permanency of savings in 1921. The amount transferred to savings 
bank pass-books in 1915 increased less than 1 per cent over 1914; the amount 
transferred in 1921 increased 17 per cent over that of 1920 — which itself had seen 



^Savings Deposits in New England during 1920 and 1921. Compiled bv the Federal 
Reserve Bank of Boston, Feb, 1922, p. 1. 



OF MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC RECORDS 39 

transferred the largest amount of the decade. Children's pennies in this year of 
unemployment and expensive living turned into the savings banks of the state 
$243,127 (Table 29), and thus helped swell the national total of school savings 
from $2,800,000 in 1919-20 to $4,000,000 in the school year 1920-21," and this in 
a time of business depression and unemployment. 

Response to thrift education counted for something, but there cannot be 
response unless there is money. Something also must be due to the fact mentioned 
by one Boston teacher who said early in the winter of 1922 that since prohibition 
children's school savings were going in larger amounts to the savings banks from 
homes where formerly the pennies and dimes had frequently been drawn upon to 
help pay the family grocery bill. 

PAUPERISM AND POVERTY 

Against this financial background of the prohibition period, made up as it is 
of several factors, one may place the human element of poverty. The poor, indeed, 
we have always with us, and especially when unemployment wipes out the slender 
margin of safety between income and cost of subsistence. 

There has been money during the unemployment of 1921 not only for necessi- 
ties but for some of the luxuries of life. The monthly Review of the Federal 
Reserve Bank of Boston (Jan. 1, 1922) stated that the Christmas trade (1921) 
was the largest in the history of many old and well-known firms. Sales were 
slower during January and February, 1922. The February Review stated that 
goods apparently selling well in December were men's furnishings, underwear,, 
hosiery, gloves, handkerchiefs, leather goods, and kitchen goods. "Reports from 
several sources indicated that phonographs were sold in much larger quantity this 
past Christmas than the year previous and that there was considerable improve- 
ment in the sales of jewelry and toys. Foreign goods which appeared in the 
stores sold well — French and Belgian handmade novelties, for instance, meeting 
with considerable approval." * 

The Banker and Tradesman (Boston, Dec. 31, 1921), remarked: 

"Buying has been unexpectedly heavy during the holiday season ; savings, 
accounts in the banks are steadily on the increase, all this in spite of unemploy- 
ment and other troubles. Looks as though prohibition had made a lot of money 
available for the above purposes that formerly went into booze." 

The reports from public relief agencies confirm this impression that decrease 
of "booze" helps the family exchequer. Prohibition has at any rate evidently 
helped conserve the gains of the high wage period to the advantage of self-support 
in the period of economic depression. 

Slackening of employment became conspicuous in the industries of Massachu- 
setts in the last six months of 1920. At the beginning of 1921, unemployment, as 
judged by the number of persons applied for by employers and of positions filled 
at the state employment office and as reported by labor unions was the worst 
since 1915. 

Massachusetts Poor Relief by Cities and Towns. Yet in the twelve months. 



"Tabulation of Savings Bank Div. of Am. Bankers Assn., Mar., 1922. 
*Monthlv Review of Federal Reserve Bank, Boston, Feb. 1, 1922. 



40 WET AND DRY YEARS IN A DECADE 

ending March 31, 1921, including that winter of unemployment, the total number 
of poor given relief by Massachusetts cities and towns was the lowest since 1913 
(Table 30c). Outside relief (b) showed a slight increase over 1920, but it was 
lower than in any other year since 1913; the average for the two dry years was 
13 per cent, below that of the seven wet years 1912-18. It was 34 per cent, lower 
than the average of the two years ending March 31, 1916, which included the 
earlier unemployment period. 

ALMSHOUSE POPULATION 
The army of public dependents cared for in city and town almshouses and 
other public relief institutions in the year ending Mar. 31, 1921, was the lowest 
of the decade, and for the two dry years was 39 per cent, below the average of 
the wet years (Table 30.a). It is interesting that this decrease of 39 per cent, 
corresponds quite closely to the Committee of Fifty's estimate more than twenty 
years ago that 37 per cent, of the pauperism in institutions was due directly or 
indirectly to intemperance. 

TABLE 30. Number of Poor Persons Supported or Relieved During the 
Year Ending March 31 

r-By All Cities and Towns^ r By State Treasury n 

(a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) 

Year Ending In Insti- Outside In Insti- Outside 

Mar. 31— tutions Relief Total tutions Relief Total 

1912 15,018 52,537 67,555 6,846 10,623 17,469 

1913 15,314 51,423 66,737 6,549 10,020 16,569 

1914 14,457 65,059 79,516 8,690 14,035 22,725 

1915 15,363 97,484 112,847 10,022 '23,547 33,569 

1916 14,786 95,935 110,721 9,204 20,879 30,083 

1917 14,337 78,090 92,427 8,612 17,844 26,456 

1918 10,626 72,936 83,562 7,948 18,693 26,641 

1919 12,185 71,642 83,827 7,480 17,726 25,206 

1920 9,604 62,770 72,374 4,939 14,756 19,695 

1921 f7,529 t63,804 f71,333 |4,298 2 21,103 f25,401 

Av. 7 wet years 1912-1918. 14,271 73,352 87,623 8,267 16,520 24,787 

Av. 2 dry years *1920-21 . . *8,566 *63,287 *71,853 *4,618 *17,929 *22,548 

Decrease 39% 13% 18% 44% £8% 9% 

(Annual Statistics from Repts. Dept. of Public Welfare.) 

The State Poor. The total number of state dependents, that is, those sup- 
ported from the state treasury, supported during the year ending March 31, 1921, 
was smaller than the number aided in any of the wet prosperous years, 1916-18; 
was practically identical with that of 1919 although the proportion of unemploy- 
ment registered during the year had been from two to eight times as great as in 
the year ending March 31, 1919. (Table 30f.) 

Outside relief increased in 1921, but was given to 2,444 fewer persons than 
in the previous hard-times winter, 1914-15. 

The number of poor cared for in institutions by the state in the year ending 

^Includes 3 mos., Apr., May, June, of 1919, before Prohibition became effective. 
X Increase in total but decrease per 100,000 population as compared with 1915. 
'Equivalent to 638 per 100,000 population. 
2 Equivalent to 543 per 100,000 population. 



OF MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC RECORDS 41 

March 31, 1921, was the lowest of the decade. There were fifty-seven hundred 
(5,724) fewer thus supported by the state than in 1914-15. (Table 30d.) 

It is not unlikely that when the number of persons supported or relieved for 
1921-22 is available, it may show some increase over 1920-21 in view of the con- 
tinued economic depression. 

The two state institutions for dependents are the State Infirmary at Tewks- 
bury, and the Almshouse Ward at the State Farm. Some are supported by the 
state in city and town almshouses. 

The State Infirmary at Tewksbury "remains the great unclassified residence 
of public dependents. It contains over seven hundred insane persons : upwards 
of eight hundred suffering from tuberculosis : a thousand aged and infirm men 
and women, and over four hundred minors." 42 It receives the indigent who have 
no legal settlement in town or city. From six to eight hundred out of each 
thousand of its inmates are foreign-born, and, roughly, half of the population 
comes from Boston. Hence the population of the institution would be materially 
affected by conditions in Boston. 

TABLE 31. Tewksbury State Infirmary 

(b). (c) _ 

(a) Admissions Population 

Cared for Year Ending Remaining 

Year Ending Mar. 31 — During Year Nov. 30 Nov. 30 

1912 4,041 4,629 2,233 

1913 3,745 4,240 2,354 

1914 5,250 4,944 2,469 

1915 5,842 4,775 2,379 

1916 ♦ 4,975 3,989 2,218 

1917 4,406 3,985 2,027 

1918 4,301 3,571 1,984 

1919 3,988 3,313 2,088 

1920 3,020 2,052 2,154 

1921 2,642f 3,018t 2,354f 

Average 7 wet years 1912-1918 4,651 4,304 2,237 

Average 2 dry years 1920-1921 2,831 2,535 2,254 

Decrease 39% 41% JO. 07% 

(Annual statistics from Repts. Dept. Public Welfare.) 
The State Infirmary in the year ending March 31, 1921, cared for the smallest 
number of persons in any year of the decade (Table 31a), in spite of the winter 
of unemployment and of the fact that those who are sent to the Infirmary are of a 
class peculiarly susceptible to the industrial barometer. Even later in the year, 
November, 1921, (Table 31b), the admissions to the Infirmary for the year ending 
Nov. 30, 1921, were the fewest of the decade except in 1920, the first prohibition 
year. In 1915, the previous unemployment year, there were 4,775 admissions; 
in 1921, but 3,018. The population was evidently increasing in 1921 with the 
oncoming of winter, for on November 30, 1921, it was approximately the same 
as in 1915 (Table 31c). 

^Robert W. Kelso, formerly Sec. of Mass. State Bd. of Charities, in "Poor Relief in 
Mass." 1922, p. 159. 
^Increase. 



42 WET AND DRY YEARS IN A DECADE 

At the almshouse ward of the State Farm there were supported during the 
year ending March 31, 1921, 343 persons (Table 32). This is a tremendous con- 
trast to the wet years' average of 1,031, and the 1,418 supported during the hard 
times of 1914-5 and the 1,588 in 1915-16. The number supported in 1921-22 is 
not yet available. It was evidently larger than in the preceding year judging by 
the population remaining April 1, 1922. During the seven wet years the average 
population on the first of April was 457 ; in 1922, it was 321 ; the average for 
the two dry years was 282. 

TABLE 32. Poor Persons Supported or Relieved by the State 
Almshouse Ward State Farm 



During Year 
Ending Mar. 
1912 


31— 






534 


1913 










366 


1914 










998 


1915 










1,418 


1916 










1,588 


1917 










1,345 


1918 










971 


1919 










632 


1920* 










399 


1921 










343f 


Av. 7 wet 
Av. 2 dry 
Decrease 


yrs. 
yrs. 


1912 
1920 


18. 
21. 


1,031 

371* 
64% 



Population Re- 




- 


maining April 1 — 






1913 




364 


1914 




491 


1915 




511 


1916 




662 


1917 




465 


1918 




401 


1919 




306 


1920* 




260 (Apr. 3) 


1921 




244 (Apr. 2) 


1922 




321f 


Av. 7 wet vrs. 


1913-19. 


457 


Av. 2 dry yrs. 


1920-21 . 


282 


Decrease .... 




38% 



(Statistics furnished by State Dept. of Public Welfare and Dept. of Corrections.) 

Boston Poverty. The number cared for in Boston city relief institutions and 
given outside aid in the year ending March 31, 1921, was 10,976, the lowest 
number since 1913 (Table 33). The average for the seven wet years had 
been 14,533. 

Unfortunately, the statistics of poor supported and relieved by Boston for 
the year ending March 31. 1922, are not yet available. They will doubtless be 
higher than for 1921 because of the continued period of unemployment. The 
year ending March 31, 1921, may be compared with that ending March 31, 1914, 
as including the first winter of a period of increasing unemployment. Of the 
earlier period the report of the Overseers of Poor said : "The tide of in- 
creased aid began to rise in the fall of 1913, rose to its maximum in March, 
1915, and the ebb tide began to flow out in January, 1916."" 

The relative amount of unemployment shown in the accompanying table 
(Table 34) was nearly three times as great in the winter of 1920-21 as in 1913-14 ; 
but the number of persons supported by Boston institutions was only about one- 

*Includes Apr., May. June of non-prohibition period of kjiq. Reports of the Com- 
missioner of Corrections bring data as to the number of paupers supported at the State 
Farm nearer to date — to Sept. 30, 1921. In the year ending Sept. 30, 1919, there were 
508 supported; in 1920, there were 358; in 1921, there were 468. 

"Report of Overseers of the Poor. City Document No. 21. 1916, p. 3. 



OF MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC RECORDS 43 

half as large as in 1913-14 (Table 33). The total number of persons supported 
by the city was smaller than in 1913-14. 

Perhaps even more significant is the fact that the number aided in 1920-21, 
with its winter of serious unemployment, was 5,465 fewer than in the year ending 
March 31, 1917. the last normal wet year when there was the least unemployment 
of the decade. (The number of persons aided in the state to correspond with dates 
in Table 34 will be found in Table 30.) 

TABLE 33. Boston. Number of Poor Persons Supported or Relieved During 
the Year Ending March 31 

During Year End- (a) (b.) (c) 

ing March 31 — Institutions Outside Relief Total 

1912 2,572 7,686 10,258 

1913 2,641 6,939 9,580 

1914 2,658 8,986 11,644 

1915 2,874 14,246 17,120 

1916 2,917 17,597 20,514 

1917 2,639 13,792 16,431 

1918 2,347 13,829 16,176 

1919 2,000 12,780 14,780 

1920 1,636 11,996 13,632 

1921 l,380t 9,596f 10,976t 

Average 7 wet years 1912-18 2,664 11,868 14,533 

Average 2 dry years 1920-21 1,508 10,796 12,304 

Decrease 43% 9% 15% 

(Annual Repts. State Board of Charities and Dept. Public Welfare.) 

Reports of the Overseers of the Poor enable us to view the situation nearer 
to date. The total number of families given relief in Boston in the year ending 
January 31, 1922, was 4,618 (Table 35). This was a smaller number than that 
of 1915 and of 1916. 

The average number of families aided in the two prohibition years ending 
January 31, 1922 (including a period of 13 months of unemployment) was 4,111 ; 
the average for the five wet years including more than three years of full em- 
ployment was 4,611. 

TABLE 34. 

Per cent, of organ- Persons aided by 

ized labor unem- Boston during 12 

ployed in months ending 

Massachusetts 1 March 31 

December 31, 1913 10.4 

March 31, 1914 12.9 

December 31, 1914 18.3 

March 31, 1915 16.6 1915 17,120 

December 31, 1915 8.6 

March 31, 1916 8.6 1916 20,514 

March 31, 1920 8.7 1920 13,632 

June 30, 1920 18.8 

December 31. 1920 31.8 

March 31, 1921 30.0 1921 10,976 

September 30, 1921 23.4 

1 Mass. Industrial Review, Nov., 1921, p. 31. 



44 



WET AND DRY YEARS IN A DECADE 



An even better picture of actual dependency appears in the figures for "de- 
pendent" exclusive of Mothers' Aid, as the latter once established had maintained 
a fairly constant number. 

The "dependent" cases in 1921 (3,076) were fewer than in three of the five 
wet years; the average for the two dry years is smaller by 638 (19.6 per cent.) 
than the average for the five wet years. 

TABLE 35. Boston. Families Aided During the Year 
Total Fami- 
Year 

1914* 

1915 

1916 

1917 

1918 

1919 

1920 

1921 



s Aided 


Dependent 


Mothers' Aid 


4,507 


3,489 


1,018 


5,512 


4,174 


1,338 


4,656 


3,268 


1,388 


4,072 


2,652 


1,420 


4,311 


2,619 


1,692 


3,756 


2,154 


1,602 


3,605 


2,129 


1,476 


4,618t 


3,076f 


l,542f 



(Annual Statistics from Reports Boston Overseers of the Poor.) 



*Table begins with 1914 because this was the first full year of "Mothers Aid" — 
assistance given to mothers with dependent children to enable them to keep their families 
together. Practically 80 per cent of these mothers are widowed, 12 per cent (1920) had 
husbands dependent because of accident or disease. The remainder have been deserted. 
Such cases are, therefore, not strictly "dependents" and are less affected by economic 
variations. 

The winter months of 1922 (January, February, March) were hard finan- 
cially. Resources from the years of plenty evidently had come to their end in 
many cases. The period followed eighteen months of serious unemployment, 
much of which continues. The extent of the unemployment had been far greater 
than in 1913-15. It is not surprising, therefore, that the average number of 
families aided per month in January, February and March, 1922 (3,545) was 
TABLE 36. Boston Admissions to Almshouses 



Year 




(a) 

State 

Infirmary 

Tewksb'ry 

f'm Boston 


(b) 

Long 

Island 

Infirmary 

& Hospital 


St. Farm 
Alms'h'se 

Ward 
from 

Boston 


Charles- 
town 
Alms- 
house 


(c) 

Total 

from 

Boston 


Born at 
Long 
Island 


1912 1 ... 




2,081 


1,392 2 




65 


3,538 2 


37 


1913 ... 




2,181 


1,452 


64 


57 


3,754 


29 


1914 ... 




2,238 


1,594 2 


394 


98 


4,324 2 


37 


1915 ... 




1,826 


1,518 


677 93 (8mos.) 


4,114 


52 


1916 ... 




1,547 


1,417 


486 


Closed 


3,450 


30 


1917 . . . 




1,675 


1,355 


154 




3,184 


27 


1918 ... 




1,361 


1,073 






2,434 


32 


1919 ... 




1,026 


841 






1,867 


20 


1920 ... 




709f 


552 






l,261f 


21 


1921 . . . 




l,145t 


937f 


151f 




2,082f 


23 


Av. 7 wet 


yrs. 


1912-1918.. 1,844 


1,400 






3,542 


34 


Av. 2 dry 


yrs. 


1920-1921 . . 927 


744 






1,672 


22 


Decrease 




49% 


46% 






52% 


35% 


(Annual 


statistics 1913-20 from Reports Bosto 
Island statistics for 1921, 1922, 


n Institutions Registration Dept. Long 
from Institutions Dept.) 



'The year here given ends on Jan. 31 of the succeeding calendar year. Thus "1912" 
is the 12 months ending Jan. 31, 1913, etc. 

2 Exclusive of 37 births included in admissions for this year in annual report. 



OF MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC RECORDS 45 

about 200 more than the average (3,330) for the same months in 1915, but the 
dependent and Mothers' Aid cases were not recorded separately by months in 
1915, so that it is impossible to compare the "dependent" families of the two 
winters. 

The almshouse dependents of Boston are markedly fewer in 1920 and 1921 
than in prosperous wet years like 1916 and 1917. 

The average number of poor sent annually to institutions by the city of Boston 
in the seven wet years was 3,542; in 1921 it was 2,082. (Table 36c). Unemploy- 
ment through 1921 shows its effects as the number was larger than in 1919 and 
1920. But the total represents, nevertheless, a decrease of 1.100 below the lowest 
record of the wet years (1917) when the tide of employment was full. 

When this record for 1921 is compared with that of the previous unemploy- 
ment period, the contrast is still more striking. In 1914 the city sent 4,324 persons 
to almshouses; the next year, 4,114. When the 1921 record of 2,082 admissions 
to almshouses is placed beside this record, the change for the better that has 
occurred speaks for itself. 

Boston Almshouse Population. The reports from Boston Almshouse and 
Hospital at Long Island bring the story down nearly to date, Feb. 28, 1922. 
(Table 37). 

TABLE 37. Population Remaining at Long Island Hospital and Infirmary 

January 31 February 28 

1913 : . . . . 1,011 1,054 

1914 1,062 1,101 

1915 1,163 1,133 

1916 1,193 1,203 

1917 1,009 1,039 

1918 994 970 

1919 870 892 

. 1920 734 697 

1921 684 715 

1922 879f 892f 

Average 7 wet years 1,043 1,056 

Average 2 dry years 781 803 

Decrease 25% 23% 

Boston Almshouse Population in Hard Winters 
On January 31 On February 28 

1915 wet 1,163 1915 wet 1,133 

1916 wet 1,193 1916 wet. . 1,203 

1921 dry 684 1921 dry 715 

1922 dry 879f 1922 dry 892f 

(Annual statistics from Boston Infirmary Dept.) 

The admissions to the Long Island institution in 1921 were 937 as compared 
with the average of 1,400 in the seven wet years. In the previous years, covering 
the 1914-15 unemployment period, there had been 1,594 and 1,518 admissions. 
The admissions were naturally more numerous in 1921 than in 1920, but the 
average for the two prohibition years is 46 per cent, below that of the seven 
wet years. 



46 WET AND DRY YEARS IN A DECADE 

Hard Winters. The population remaining at Long Island January 31, 1922, 
was 879 (Table 37). Though higher than for three preceding years, this is 
a strikingly lower figure than the 1,163 dependents in the institution on the same 
date in 1915, and 1,193 in 1916. 

Still further into the heart of the winter, February 28, 1922, there was a 
population of only 892 as compared with 1,133 in 1915 and 1,198 in 1916. 

THE WAYFARER'S LODGE 

The Boston Wayfarer's Lodge is the municipal lodging house open all the 
year round. While many of the men come many times, it is understood to be 
only a temporary home. It accommodates 175 men comfortably, although as many 
as 212 can be cared for. 

The average number of lodgers served annually by the Wayfarers' Lodge in 
the seven wet years was 37.511 ; in the unemployment year, 1915, there were 
99,395; in the unemployment year, 1921, there were but 18,859 (Table 38). The 
Lodge has accommodations for about 25 more men per night than in 1915. 

In the seven wet years there were served on the average 55,506 meals annually : 
in 1915, the number nearly doubled, 103,734. In 1921, there were 39,139 meals 
served. 

The acuteness of the need among men in that winter of 1914-15 is revealed by 
the report of the Wayfare's Lodge. Five additional buildings had to be opened 
for a shelter. 44 Certain circumstances seem to have contributed to increasing the 
number of applicants. ''Unfortunately such public announcements as were made 
at the time laid emphasis upon the size and comfort of the new temporary quarters 
while failing to include any reference to the requirement that work must be per- 
formed in return for lodging and food required. . . . It is not strange, therefore, 
that as the numbers lodged by the city increased the Overseers of the Poor found 
themselves without familities for complying fully with the statute which stipulates 
that work must be done in return for lodging." 45 

TABLE 38. The Wayfarer's Lodge, Boston 

Individual Total Av Lodgings Total 

Year Lodgers Lodgings Per Man Meals 

1912 10,892 27,040 2.48 48,479 

1913 11,854 30,205 2.55 52,959 

1914 15,633 47,268 3.02 75,353 

1915 21,047 99,395 4.72 103,734 

1916 8,330 20,995 2.52 39,733 

1917 8,479 22,531 2.66 38,558 

1918 5,814 15,148 2.60 29,729 

1919 3,396 11,298 3.33 19,462 

1920 3,599 4,666 1.30 8,912 

1921 5,036f 18,859f 3.74t 39,139t 

Average 7 wet years 1912-18 11,721 37,511 2.93 55,506 

Average 2 dry years 1920-21 4,317 11,762 2.52 24,025 

The "year" is for the 12 months ending Jan. 31 of the succeeding calendar year. 
(Annual statistics from reports Boston Overseers of Poor.) 

■"Report of Overseers of the Poor, City Document 21, 1915, p. 3. 
"Report of Associated Charities of Boston, Nov.. 1915, p. 32. 



OF MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC RECORDS 47 

These facts may help explain the exceptionally large numbers applying at the 
Wayfarer's Lodge in the winter of 1915. For the five months ending May 1, 1915. 
90,720 men were received and cared for and 95,219 meals were served. 

During the three months, January-March, 1922, there were 8,604 lodgings 
provided and 22,546 meals served. Whereas in the winter of 1915, five additional 
buildings had to be provided to accommodate the applicants, the writer is informed 
that in the winter 1921-22 the Lodge was able to accommodate all who have applied. 

Thus while there has been a conspicuous increase in aid rendered as the 
months of unemployment dragged on into 1922, the record for twelve months is 
far more favorable than for the average wet year; the record for the winter of 
1922 is proportionally much more favorable than for the wet winter of 1914-15. 

Av. No. Lodgings Av. No. Meals Served 
Per Month Per Month 

Five months ending May 1, 1915 18,144 19,044 

Three months ending April 1, 1922 2,868 7,515 

How much did prohibition contribute to the decrease in recipients of public 
relief? The writer does not undertake to estimate. The figures for 1921-1922 so 
far as available naturally show an increase over the preceding year due to the 
continued period of business depression. Yet they are below the figures for 
prosperous days in the wet periods. The very decrease in the number of savings 
accounts in 1921 may represent an increase in the number of individuals able to 
care for themselves and thus may help explain the smaller number of applicants 
for public relief as compared with wet days. Personal bank accounts may have 
helped tide over situations that formerly drew upon public funds. 

Every consideration should be given to the factor of high wages and industrial 
prosperity in the preceding years as an explanation of the higher levels of savings 
and the lower levels of poor relief in 1920 and 1921. But in view of the data 
recorded the conclusion seems inevitable that this period of prohibition has un- 
questionably conserved earnings, given financial resources which helped tide over 
the long months of business depression, kept independent or within the care of 
their own families persons who otherwise would have been dependent on public 
aid or who would have thronged the doors of the almshouses and other public 
relief institutions as before. 

What the Missions Observe. "How does prohibition suit you, Pat?" was 
asked of an Irishman in the northwest end of Boston where saloons had been rife. 
"I wish it had gone into effect forty years ago," was the prompt reply, 'T would 
have somethin' in me pocket today." Hundreds of homes are evidently happier 
and independent since prohibition came because the head of the family already 
can say that today he has "somethin' " other than a bottle in his pocket. 

"We find a marked decrease in the number of men made destitute by drink,'' 
says the Superintendent of the Merrimac Mission in a former saloon-ridden 
section of the city. 46 "Many men who were complete wrecks are coming in sober 
and clear in mind, healthier in body and clean in attire. Even the smell of liquor 
has become hateful to many. A number of attractive stores in this neighborhood 
have taken the place of the saloon so that we no longer encounter the old disgusting 



^Personal communication. Mar. 7, 1922. 



48 WET AND DRY YEARS IN A DECADE 

surroundings, and while new concoctions as a substitute to satisfy the old craving 
are being manufactured in a few dark corners it is only on a small scale and bound 
to be suppressed sooner or later." 

From the Salvation Army headquarters in another closely populated section 
ni Boston comes confirmation of Family Welfare Society experience (page 25). 
"There has been a great change as a result of prohibition. Previous to prohibition 
a great majority of those applying for relief were found, on investigation, to have 
been brought to their needy condition through drink. Now among those who 
apply for help we find that the majority have been brought to such a condition 
through sickness, lack of work and misfortune/' 47 

"Previous to the enactment of the national prohibition law alcoholic drink 
was the chief cause of poverty of those who appealed to us for help. Today there 
are barely 2 per cent of this class in our calls for help/' says the Superintendent 
of another South End (Hope) Mission. "The number of drunken men seen on 
the street is not a fraction of what we used to see when the saloons were doing a 
legitimate business." 48 

"Conditions are infinitely better in our neighborhood than they were before 
prohibition," says Albert J. Kennedy of the South End House. 49 "Liquor is more 
easily obtainable than a year ago ; there is more evident drunkenness on the streets, 
showing that those who want liquor are able to obtain it in some form. The 
difference, however, is negligible compared to conditions before national prohi- 
bition went into effect. . . . 

Sounder Family Life. "Family life continues on an infinitely sounder basis. 
The majority of men who gave up drinking are not using substitutes, or if they do, 
it is in such slight degree as not to affect them. People very generally are glad to 
have the saloon discontinued. Not even those most desirous of drink ask for the 
return of the old type of saloon. There is a pretty general feeling even among 
working men that the rum shop was an unmixed evil. There is absolutely no 
demand for a substitute for the saloon. My own observation seems to indicate 
that it is the class above the manual laborer which is drinking. Those obviously 
under the influence of liquor have money enough to dress well. There are signs 
which seem to show that law breaking is far more evident among the middle class 
than it is among the hand workers." 

"From our twenty-five years' experience here in the South End, we have had 
a chance to see what an influence the saloon has had on individuals and families." 
says Mr. Moore of Morgan Memorial already quoted (p. 26). "We feel that 
the new regime while it is not all that it desired, is Heaven on earth compared 
with what the old conditions used to be." 

A few typical individual instances illustrate concretely the changes that are 
taking place. A family assisted by a mission for years had as its nominal head a 
father who "was about as well acquainted with the Deer Island jail as with his 
own home because of drink. Today he owns a horse and cart, sells wood and coal 
for a living and is doing well." "A man who for forty years has been known as 



"Personal communication. Mar. 7, 1922. 
,s Personal communication. Mar. 6, 1922. 
'"Personal communication. Mar. 7, 1921, Dec. 2, 1921. 



OF MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC RECORDS 49 

one of the drunks of (an industrial town in Massachusetts) was a 

tine workman at his trade, but we could never keep him at his work for a full 
week as he would be off, drunk, sometime during the week. He is now a faithful 
and trusted night watchman. Another who was a perfect sot and did not work- 
half the time is now a very satisfactory night watchman. The children of the 
family were largely supported by the mother as a wash and scrub woman during 
the time that her husband was addicted to drink. Today she is one of the happiest 
women in town and only yesterday I saw her and her husband out driving with a 
nice horse and sleigh, showing that his money is being much better invested than 
when it was going for drink. One of our large contractors said that previous to 
the prohibition law he could not place any dependence upon very many of his 
laborers after pay day. Now they are at work regularly and he has no trouble 
along these lines. The chief of police, on Christmas Day, saw coming with their 
families from a local theatre a dozen men, sober and well dressed, whom, at 
Christmas in the years before prohibition, he regularly had in the local jail for 
drunkenness." 50 

FROM PATCHING TO CONSTRUCTING 

Not the least of the benefits noted by social workers in the abolition of the 
legal liquor traffic is the opportunity which it affords for turning from "patching'* 
of wrecks to constructive service. 

The Survey sent out a questionnaire in the autumn of 1921 to various parts 
of the country seeking information as to the rate of unemployment and other 
problems in destitution. The Survey's own comment (Oct. 15, 1921) was that 
"'the little stress placed at the present time upon intemperance as a contributing 
factor in poverty is one of the interesting points brought out by replies to the 
questionnaires." 

Mr. Stockton Raymond, as General Secretary of the Boston Family Welfare 
Society, replied that "one fact stands out above' all others. Intemperance under 
prohibition has been a decreasing factor in the work of the Family Welfare 
Society." Then follows this encouraging note for the future : 

"It has thus been possible for the organization to undertake a great amount 
of constructive and preventive work instead of wasting time in trying to alleviate 
suffering which could not fail to exist under such an evil as licensed liquor selling." 

The Salvation Army. How this change to constructive work is possible is 
thus stated from the Boston Salvation Army headquarters : 

"Previous to prohibition the men were so absorbed in the securing of liquor 
that they developed a loafing spirit, and seemed to care very little whether they 
worked or not. Their one thought seemed to be to get all they could drink, which 
robbed them of any interest or thought they may have had for home and family. 
Since the barrier has been put up by prohibition, there seems to be an increased 
willingness on the part of the men to put forth some effort to help themselves. 
Thus, instead of becoming degenerates, and a burden to the community, by being 
given work they not only contribute to the support of themselves, but become 
productive to the world at large. Giving a man something for nothing is de- 

50 Personal communication. Feb. 27, 1922. 



50 WET AND DRY YEARS IN A DECADE 

structive; helping the man to help himself is constructive; work of the highest 
order. As a result of not being called upon to give so much time and attention 
to the intemperate, we are able to devote much more time to the constructive work 
among both men and women." 51 

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 

The foregoing information covers the principal phases of human life revealed 
in public documents. It relates to the great chapters of public disorder, crime, 
sickness and mortality, conditions of women and children, thrift and poverty in a 
leading industrial state and its capital city for ten years. It includes the most 
eventful period in the world's history and its attendant social and economic 
changes. The report places side by side conditions in two periods of business 
depression. 

It contains over one hundred tables of statistics for the ten year periods. It 
shows that when the year 1921 is compared with the period of seven successive 
non-prohibition years in the decade, in more than three-quarters of the items 
tabulated, the figures for 1921 are either the most favorable of the decade, or 
better than any of the "wet'' years, or better than the average of the wet years. 
In all but less than a dozen the average for the two dry years is conspicuously 
better than the average for the wet years, and the difference in these few cases 
was so small as to be practically negligible except in one instance, the Boston City 
Hospital, which will be mentioned later. Arrests for all causes, for drunkenness, 
for serious offenses, despite unemployment and unrest following the war, were all 
far lower (from 12 to 69 per cent. ) than in the wet period, either absolutely or 
in proportion to the population. 

The population of the various penal institutions was from 9 to 64 per cent. 
lower in 1921 than in the average wet year. The total population in all penal 
institutions of Massachusetts, Sept. 30, 1921, was 3,252 as compared with an 
average of 5,839 in the seven wet years. 

Making all allowance for changing methods of dealing with offenders, it 
appears that the decrease in drunkenness and accompanying offenses had a pre- 
ponderating influence in the special decrease in prison population in 1920 and 1921. 

The number of women and children caught in the machinery of the law has 
markedly fallen. Fewer women arrested for all causes and for drunkenness, only 
314 women in the penal institutions of the state, Sept. 30, 1921, as compared to 
an average of 732 in the seven wet years or 839 in the preceding hard-times year 
of 1915. Arrests for offenses against chastity in Boston were 1,881 in 1921, a 
smaller number than in any of the seven wet years. The number of children under 
fifteen years of age arrested in Boston was the smallest of the decade, 600 fewer 
than the wet years' average. There was the smallest total of arests of 
neglected and delinquent children in Boston (2,442), a decrease of almost 
700 from the wet years' average of 3,124; the fewest cases (save in 1916) be- 
gun in the decade in the Boston Juvenile Court, 878; the wet years' average 
was 1,072. Probation officers ascribe the improvement to the improved con- 
ditions in the homes due to prohibition. Parental drunkenness is nearly 



'Personal communication. Mar. 7, 1922. 



OF MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC RECORDS 51 

absent in cases of dependent and neglected children given into care of the 
Boston Child Welfare Division. 

Statistics are confirmed by the experience of the Boston Family Welfare 
Society, that found in a hundred new cases only about four cases (4.1) where 
intemperance was a conspicuous factor in 1922 as compared with twenty-seven 
(27) in 1917. Gain is confirmed by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention 
of Cruelty to Children whose records for 1916 and 1921 showed in 1921 a decrease 
of two-thirds in the proportion of cases in which intemperance was an important 
factor in cruelty or neglect to children. The contribution to integrity of the home 
appears in this Society's record of 144 alcoholic families from which in 1916 four 
times as many children were removed as were returned ; since prohibition came, 
twice as many have been returned as removed. 

Massachusetts and Boston have shared with the rest of the country the re- 
markable decline in general and infant mortality which began in 1919. 

The extent to which prohibition has contributed directly or indirectly 
can not be estimated, but its influence is clearly traceable in certain classes 
of mortality. This effect in some cases may be due to decreased drinking; 
in some to the improvement in food, care, home surroundings, recreation, 
freedom from worry following improved economic conditions resulting from 
saving money formerly spent for drink. It will be understood that the influ- 
ence of all movements for promoting public health are recognized as factors 
in many of those gains and that no claim is made that Prohibition is the sole 
cause, except as it touches cases where alcohol is unquestionably the chief 
conspicuous cause of sickness or mortality. 

The deaths from alcoholism in Boston were the lowest of the decade in 
1921 except for 1919 and 1920, both prohibition or part prohibition years, 
70 deaths in 1921 against the wet years' average of 134. The number of 
deaths from accidents was the smallest of the decade ; of homicides, one less 
than the wet years' average. There were 102 suicides ; the average number 
in the wet years was 126; in the previous hard times year, the number was 
140. The 694 alcoholics admitted to the Washingtonian Home in 1921 rep- 
resent a genuine gain over the average of 955 admissions in the seven wet 
years, during which an equal number was entering the doors of the former 
State inebriate hospital now used by the federal government for the injured 
of soldiers. There were also 11 small private institutions in Massachusetts 
for the treatment of alcoholics. All but three of the latter are now closed. 
As long as the old drinkers continue to drink, it will not be surprising if the 
Washingtonian Home, in the absence of the other former institutions, receives 
a considerable number of alcoholics who, formerly, might have gone to the 
State or private hospitals, and so continues to have a fairly large number of 
admissions. 

In the Boston City Hospital, cases of delirium tremens in 1921 were the 
fewest since 1915. The admissions of alcoholics present the most conspicu- 
ously unfavorable table of the report with a marked increase over 1920. 
There are, however, no comparable figures for the full seven wet years' period 



52 WET AND DRY YEARS IN A DECADE 

as the hospital's policy in handling and recording alcoholics was changed in 
1916. Some of the increase is due to the quality of liquor purchased. The patients 
are largely confirmed drinkers, a legacy from pre-prohibition days, idlers, and 
ne'er-do-wells. The increased number suggests, perhaps, an increased ille- 
gal source of liquor supply for them, and one of the results of absence of a 
prohibition enforcement law in Massachusetts, while the effect seems now 
to make the drinker not only drunk but sick in the class taken to the 
hospital. 

Mortality from Cirrhosis of the Liver furnishes contributory health evidence 
of prohibition benefits. In 1921 there were approximately but three-fifths as 
many deaths from Cirrhosis of the Liver in both Boston and Massachusetts as 
in the average wet year. The tuberculosis death rate in both city and state 
reached in 1921 its lowest point and prohibition is named among the contributing 
causes. 

Alcoholic insanity ("alcoholic psychoses") was responsibue ior but 151 
first admissions to public institutions for the insane and McLean Hospital 
in 1921 ; there was an annual average of 340 in the seven wet years. The 
total number of first admissions of all insane was the lowest since 1912 except 
for 1920, also a prohibition year. Alcoholic insanity was responsible for 10.3 
per cent, of first admissions in the average wet year ; the dry years' average 
was 4.24 per cent. 

Poverty and pauperism returns so far as available show a marked im- 
provement over the wet period. After a winter (1921) when unemployment 
had been the worst since 1915, the state, cities', and town almshouses had, 
March 31, 1921, the smallest population of the decade and only about half 
the average for the wet years which included three years of full employment 
and higher wages. Outside relief by cities and towns was given in 1921 in 
nearly 10,000 fewer cases than the average for the wet years, and in 34,000 
fewer cases than in the year including the hard winter of 1915. Outside 
relief was given by the State in more cases than for several years, but the 
number fell by 2,400 below the 1915 figures, and represented only 543 per- 
sons assisted per 100,000 population as compared with 638 in 1915. (Table 30). 

The admissions to the Boston Almshouse (Long Island Infirmary and 
Hospital) bring the pauperism and poverty figures nearer to date with a total 
of 937 admissions in the year ending January 31, 1922; the average for the 
seven wet years was 1,400. The admissions in the wet years never fell 
below 1,073. The resident population February 28, 1922. numbered 892; 
there were 1,133 on the same date in the 1915 hard winter, and 1,203 in 1916. 

The Boston Wayfarers' Lodge in 1921 provided 18,859 lodgings, a smaller 
number than in any wet year except 1918; the average for the wet years was 
37,511. During the winter of 1922 there was an increased demand for lodgings 
and meals, but although there was more unemployment than at the same time in 
1915 and there was a monthly average of 2,868 lodgings and 7.515 meals provided 
in January, February and March, 1922, the monthly average in the five montbs 
ending May 1, 1915, was 18,144 lodgings and 19,044 meals. 



OF MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC RECORDS 53 

The Family Welfare Society cared for 4,154 families in the year ending 
April 30, 1922. Though this was a larger number than in several preceding years, 
it was nearly 700 fewer than the 4,847 families cared for in the previous hard 
times year of 1915. 

The few instances of an increase in numbers in 1921 over the wet period 
outside those already mentioned include the deaths from homicide in Massa- 
chusetts which, however, were but four more in 1921 than the average for 
the wet years and were fewer than in 1913, 1915, and 1916. The average 
number of homicides for the two years 1920 and 1921 was 11 per cent lower 
than the average for the seven wet years. 

The population in the State Infirmary, November 30, 1921, total (2,354) 
exceeded by 117 the average for 1912-17, but it was lower than in 1914 and 
1915. 

When the average of the two prohibition years 1920 and 1921 is com- 
pared with the average for the seven wet years the gains of the prohibition 
period are even more conspicuous. The thoughtful student of the tables will 
see throughout the record of 1919 and 1920, when prohibition first went 
into effect, the promise of what well observed and well enforced prohibition 
may mean to public health, welfare and security. The disparaging remarks made 
concerning supposed ineffectiveness of prohibition can nearly all be traced to 
comparison of conditions between 1920 and 1921, as, in general, the figures 
are less favorable in 1921, but that this phrase may not be wrenched from 
its context and used to give an erroneous impression, the writer includes 
with it the reminder that 1921 shows immense gains over the average wet 
year. 

In view of the fact that Boston was a consistently wet city, that there 
has been no adequate state law to assist honest local officials who desired 
to make prohibition thoroughly effective in Boston and throughout the state, 
the results so far apparent are both significant and encouraging. The situ- 
ation in 1921, in so far as it is an improvement over the old wet regime (as 
it is in all but a small minority of points) is cause for distinct encouragement. 
In so far as it is less favorable than in 1920, it is a challenge to defeat the 
menace of a traffic that organizes for lawless purposes at the expense of 
public welfare, and to support loyally a law that in a brief time has brought 
so much of benefit to the community at large as well as to individuals. What 
has been done, the State and City can continue to do. 

The words of Dr. Charles W. Eliot, President-Emeritus of Harvard Uni- 
versity, well summarize the whole matter •} 

"Evidence has accumulated on every hand that Prohibition has promoted 
public health, public happiness and industrial efficiency. This evidence 
comes from manufacturers, physicians, nurses of all sorts, school, factory, 
hospital and district, and from social workers of many races and religions 
laboring daily in a great variety of fields. This testimony also demonstrates 

1 From a letter sent Feb. 12, 1922, to be read at a hearing before the Committee on 
Legal Affairs of the Mass. Legislature on a bill providing a State Prohibition Enforce- 
ment Code. 



54 WET AND DRY YEARS IN A DECADE 

beyond a doubt that Prohibition is actually sapping the terrible force of dis- 
ease, poverty, crime and vice. These results are obtained in spite of the 
imperfect enforcement in some communities of the Eighteenth Amendment 
to the Federal Constitution. . . . Let Massachusetts, at once take her 
whole share in putting into execution these prohibitory measures, which are 
sure to promote public health, public happiness, and industrial efficiency 
throughout the country, and to eliminate the chief causes of poverty, crime 
and misery among our people." 

HISTORICAL REFERENCES 
Several studies have been made of the liquor situation in Massachusetts. A list of the 
more important ones is appended for reference by readers who desire to study the history 
of drunkenness and legislative methods of dealing with the liquor traffic in Massachusetts 
and the results. 

Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Statistics : Statistics of Drunkenness and Liquor Sell- 
ing, 1874 and 1877, Tenth Annual Report, Jan. 1879; Statistics of Cr-ime, 1860-1879, Eleventh 
Annual Report, Jan. 1880; Statistics of Drunkenness and Liquor Selling, Twelfth Annual 
Report, Jan. 1881 ; Relations of the Liquor Traffic to Pauperism, Crime and Insanity, Twenty- 
sixth Annual Report, 1895. 

The last is the most complete of these reports. 

Report of Commissioners appointed (Aug. 1, 1874) by the Secretary of State of 
Canada, To Inquire into the Working of the Prohibitory Law. The Report includes re- 
sults of personal inquiry during a visit to Massachusetts in the period when beer was ex- 
empt from the prohibition law. 

Pitman, Robert C, LL. D. : Alcohol and the State. 1877. pp. 150-182; 270-282; 287-301; 
335-344- 

Committee of fifty, Economic Aspects of the Liquor Problem. 1899 pp. 2, 3, 16, 122, 
130, 132, 159. Appendix, Tables I, II, III, IV, XIII. 

Report of the Commission to Investigate Drunkenness in Massachusetts. House Docu- 
ment 2053. January, 1914. 

The Cost of Alcohol in Massachusetts. A collection of reports from social welfare 
organizations presented at a special conference called by the League for Preventive Work, 
held in Boston, Mar. 1, 1918. 

Woods, Amy,: The Social Effects of Prohibition. A study made by the League for 
Preventive Work, Boston, 1920. 



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